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The contamination of Europe’s food
GM crops have been grown commercially in some parts of the world since the early 1990s.  Although there have been relatively few GM crops grown in Europe on a commercial scale, over the last few years there have been several cases of seed and food contamination by GMOs all across Europe.  Contamination of crops or harvested seed by GMOs can happen through cross-pollination, during harvest, or during processing.  In some cases, contamination has occurred with GM crops that have not been approved for human consumption.  The cases have also identified the difficulties in segregating GM and non-GM crops.

How are Europe’s fields being contaminated?
Many cases of contamination have arisen from imported seeds, mostly from the US and Canada.  The regulatory system is very different in the US and there are more than 45 different types of GM food approved for the US market.  The minimal regulation and control of GM crops in the US also fails to ensure that there are adequate separation distances between GM and non-GM crops.  This is one of the main ways in which conventional and organic seeds can become contaminated.

Contamination in the field
There have been several cases of GMO contamination of conventional seeds across Europe.  One of the most notable was in the spring of 2000 when Advanta’s conventional oilseed rape variety “Hyola 38" became contaminated with Monsanto’s Roundup-tolerant oilseed rape “GT 73".  The contamination occurred in Canada when pollen from Monsanto’s rape was blown onto fields of the conventional variety.  More than 6,000 hectares of farmland in the EU - France, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden and the UK - were planted with the contaminated oilseed rape.  In some cases, up to 2.6% contamination was found.  This was just one of many cases around Europe.

Contamination around the world
The cases identified in Europe are just the tip of the iceberg.  If more tests were carried out on products on supermarket shelves, more examples of illegal GMOs in our food would almost certainly be revealed.  But it is not just in Europe that food and seed contamination is happening.  Examples can be found all over the world - in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Japan and South Korea to name but a few.

For more information about FoE’s International GMO Programme, go to:
http://www.foei.org/gmo/index.html
For a report on GMO contamination around the world http://www.foei.org/publications/gmo/contamination.pdf
 

Austria
Seed

• Oilseed rape in brauna, hyola 401 contaminated with monsanto’s gt73. April/may 2000,
  origin: canada.
• Three maize varieties tested and showed presence of gm seeds (conventional variety
  Pioneer pr39d81 was contaminated with gm varieties Novartis bt11, novartis bt 176 and monsanto mon 810*). May 2001. All maize-producing provinces of Austria (carinthia, styria, upper austria, lower austria, burgenland) were subject to contamination. *for all these varieties, commercial sale in Austria is illegal

Food

• Alpro soya desserts, traces of roundup ready soya found in several tests from august to december 2000.
• “Biophar” honey (Canadian canola honey) found to contain traces of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soya and Aventa Basta-resistant oilseed rape. June 2000.
• Santa Maria Tortilla chips showed signs of contamination by Monsanto GA21 Maize. October 2000.

Belgium
Food

• Levels of up to 6% contamination of the approved Novartis Bt 176 maize found in Hansmann’s pancake mix - far in excess of the 1% threshold above which foods must be labelled. Nov 2000, origin: USA.

Denmark
Seed

• Advanta Hyola 401 contaminated with Monsanto’s herbicide-tolerant GT73 - 2.5 tonnes imported. Grown and sold without any labelling, traceability or control - no-one knows where it ended up. May 2000, origin: Canada.

Food

• Kims Zapata chips contaminated with Monsanto GA21 maize. November 2000.
• Survey by Danish authorities found 8 food products containing illegal GMOs (Cookies - American company; VitaKink Proteindrink - Bodyshape; SBO Pyratos Sojaflakes - Neuroflakes; Sojaprotein - Steff-Houlberg; Tofu - Carl Lange & Co. A/S; Sojaprotein - Eberhart A/S; Sojaprotein - Jens Pedersen; Sojaprotein - Slagter Ole Erlandsen). August 2000.
• Kvickly’s own bakeries used GM soya oil in a few products without labelling. December 1997.
• Jako cookies found to contain GM soy and sold by 7-Eleven without label. Spring 1997

Feed

• Danish food authorities revealed the presence of GMOs in 20 out of 48 samples of organic animal feed. 8 samples contained more than 1% GMO, of which one sample (not organic) contained 100% GMO. August 2001.

France
Seed

• French Food Safety Agency discovered presence of GMO material in samples of rapeseed, soy and maize seeds - levels of 41% contamination were found in the maize. The tests only detected quantities above 0.1% so could not exclude the presence of other GMOs at weaker levels. (21)
• Traces of GM material found in seeds used for soybean production. Levels of 0.8-1.5% found. GM soya is not authorised for planting in France. Aug 2000 (18)
• Conventional oilseed rape variety “Hyola 38" contaminated by pollen from GM variety “GT 73". 600 hectares sown. Origin: Canada.
• Maize - more than 4,000 hectares in up to 23 départements in the south-west affected by GM contaminated maize. February 2000, origin: USA (Golden Harvest company). (Seeds also shipped to farms in Sweden, UK and Germany).
• Pioneer Hi-Bred maize contaminated with Bt variety (see Switzerland). May 1999, origin: USA.

Germany
Food

• Consumer study reveals more than a third of packaged food products including maize or soya contain GM material, 3 of them over 1% level. July 2000.
  Seed
• German authorities find maize seed batches contaminated by genetically modified seeds. These are the varieties "Arsenal" contaminated with the variety Monsanto GA 21 and "Janna" contaminated with the varieties Novartis Bt 176 and Novartis Bt 11. Bt 11 is not authorised for cultivation in the EU. April 2001, origin: Chile and Canada.
• Pioneer Hi-Bred maize contaminated by Bt variety (see Switzerland). May 1999, origin: USA.
• Conventional oilseed rape variety “Hyola 38" contaminated by pollen from GM variety “GT 73". 400 hectares sown. Origin: Canada.

Greece
Seed

• Contaminated cotton seed not authorised for growing in the EU found in samples taken from the 14,000 tons of suspect seed that was planted in spring 2000. On average, contamination levels were found to be 2.74%. Origin: USA.

Ireland
Food

• Food Safety Authority of Ireland tested tortilla and taco shells and found GM maize ingredients were present in 19 of the 26 samples, although less than the 1% threshold. May 2001.

Italy
Food

• “Bi-Aglut” health biscuits (made by Plada - subsidiary of HJ Heinz) found to contain GM material in the soybean ingredient in Sicily. April 2001.
  Feed
  
• The authorities ordered the destruction of 10 fields (80 Hectares) contaminated with GM soybeans (from Monsanto and Syngenta stocks, discovered in April). The farms involved were in the Regions of Lombardia and Emilia.

Luxembourg
Seed

• Conventional oilseed rape variety “Hyola 38" contaminated by pollen from GM variety Monsanto “GT 73" - minor quantities of contaminated seed found. Origin: Canada.

Netherlands
Seed

• GM beet from field trials was mixed with other crops destined for food processing. Two tons of Monsanto’s sugar beet (resistant to Roundup) were harvested accidentally with non-GM beet. 1998.
• Ministry of Environment sealed off and destroyed more than 10 tons of stored sugar but some of the beet pulp was sold as animal feed.

Poland
Food

• Soya product made by Czech company “Santé” found to contain 4% GM soya. This product was neither approved, nor labelled - which is required under Polish legislation. July 2001.
  

Spain
Food

• Spanish importer, Moyresa, accused of deliberately contaminating GM-free soya from Brazil. Origin: Argentina, USA.

Sweden
Seed

• Conventional oilseed rape variety “Hyola 38" contaminated by pollen from Monsanto’s GM variety “GT 73". 600 hectares sown, some 14 tons believed to have been imported in 1999. Farmers ordered to destroy the 600 hectares before it developed sufficiently to produce new seed. Origin: Canada.
  Feed
• 1,200 tons of GM-free soya meal found to contain 10% GM soya, after it had been distributed to producers of meat, milk, poultry and eggs. Origin: Brazil.

Switzerland
Seed

• Swiss Department of Agriculture discovered contamination of conventional maize seed varieties (Ulla and Benicia), produced in the USA. Pioneer Hi-Bred’s varieties were found to contain a GM Bt variety. Before the contamination was discovered, 200 hectares had already been planted. May 1999, origin: USA.

UK
Food

• Pilot food sampling survey carried out by a local council found that 10% of food tested contained undeclared GMOs. In one case, more than 5% of the soya present was GM. August 2001 (26).
• Phileas Fogg Tortilla chips and ASDA and Safeway own brands found to contain GM ingredients not licensed for sale in UK. Traces also found in Tesco and Sainsbury tortilla chips. Three types were found to contain Monsanto GM maize GA21. Dekalb GM maize DBT418 traces were found in two further products - neither approved for use in Europe. Nov 2000 (5)
  Seed
• Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food found two possible cases of GM contamination in conventional oilseed rape seeds. Company involved not identified. April 2001 (6)
• Supposedly GM-free oilseed rape crops at Scottish test site found to be contaminated with GM material (Aventis) June 2000 (7)
  Conventional oilseed rape variety “Hyola 38" contaminated by pollen from GM variety Monsanto“ GT 73". 4,650 hectares sown in 2000 (9,000 sown in 1999!). Origin: Canada.
• Some experimental plots of GM beet in Europe (including the UK) found to contain “stacked genes”. The beet should only have been tolerant of glufosinate but was also found to be tolerant of glyphosate. This may have occurred during seed production. (9) The beet seed produced for Aventis by German based KWS was also planted in plots in Germany, France, and Netherlands. October 2000.
• Maize seed contaminated with GM material imported from France and planted in up to 41,000 acres. May 2000.

For more information on individual contamination cases and references, contact gmo@foeeurope.org