The Hindu : National : Few checks to prevent entry of GM food

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Friday, May 23, 2008
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Few checks to prevent entry of GM food

Sarah Hiddleston

CHENNAI: Ports in India face an enormous burden in scientifically analysing products from countries growing genetically modified crops.

No GM organisms can be imported unless sanctioned by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, the nodal agency that functions under the Ministry of Environments and Forests.

Only two food imports have been approved, according to an MoEF response to an RTI submission: refined vegetable soybean oil and crude degummed soybean oil by Catholic Relief Services and Care India as food aid in 2002. But a couple of weeks ago, packets of Doritos potato chips available in select supermarkets, including in Chennai, were revealed to contain two strains of GM corn.

An independent German laboratory found Mon 863 (for pest tolerance) and NK603 (for herbicide tolerance) in a sample picked up by Greenpeace from Delhi. The U.S.-based manufacturer Pepsico says that it does not market the product in India and has not exported it directly.

The supermarket is believed to have acquired it through an independent importer via Mumbai.

Mandatory certificates attesting the GM status of imports checked at customs and the judgment of Port Health Officers at the 16 points of entry into India are the only checks in the system to prevent raw or processed food items that have unlawful GM strains from turning up in products in the market.

Sources in the Health Ministry said that samples of all food imports are tested for safety.

But tests for GM strains are not performed on a regular basis. Not all ports have facilities to detect genetic engineering, and though samples of consignments can be sent for testing elsewhere, these laboratories are overburdened, senior officials from customs and the Port Trust point out.

The scale of the task involved in checking suspicious consignments is large; food items from countries that grow certain GM crops, including Argentina, Brazil and the U.S., might not be GM-free because those governments do not require crop segregation or food labelling, Dr. Ajay Parida, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, told The Hindu.

Manufacturers in these countries, he said, do not test for GM strains because they say it would increase the price of the food items and pass the burden to the consumer.

The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, entrusted a regulatory body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with the responsibility for GM foods.

The body, known as the Food Safety Standard Authority, together with the scientific panel for genetically modified organisms the Act recommended, has not yet become functional.

Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules 2006 places the responsibility for authorising GM foods back with the GEAC. In August last year, the GEAC exempted GM processed food where the end product was not living, such as oils from GM seeds, from the 1989 rules for import/manufacture of GM organisms.

However, the exemption was on February 25, 2008 held in abeyance until September 30, 2008 or until further notification by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare regarding regulation of GM processed foods.

The Food Safety Standards Authority, headed by Mr G. Balachandran, is expected to begin working next month.

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