Leading companies in Europe's vast food industry joined forces on Thursday
with key players in much of the EU grain sector to demand tolerance for tiny
amounts of genetically modified material not yet allowed in EU markets.

EU feedmakers have long complained of problems sourcing raw material,
warning that the consequences of Europe's extreme caution and "zero
tolerance" of unauthorised GMOs, could be disastrous for the food and feed
sectors.

Europe's food safety chief has already promised to draft a proposal before
early August that would permit very limited amounts - less than one
percent - of unauthorised GM material to be detected in imports of foods
like maize, rice and soya.

EU law sets a threshold of 0.9 percent for GM material in food and feed,
above which a cargo must be labelled as biotech.

As with most areas of biotech policy in the European Union, the
zero-tolerance issue has proved sharply divisive: both among EU countries,
and between industry and environment groups.

Green groups strongly oppose the idea of letting unauthorised GMOs, even in
tiny amounts, into EU markets. The biotech industry says it is impractical
and unrealistic not to accept that they will occasionally be found in import
cargoes.

"It is simply impossible to guarantee the total absence of GM traces from
countries where GM crops are widely grown," said Ruth Rawling, chairwoman of
the food and feed safety unit at Coceral, the EU's major grain trade lobby,
in a statement.

The problem for GM crop-growing countries, in particular the United States,
Canada and Argentina, is that EU law at the moment does not tolerate the
accidental presence of unauthorised GMOs that have been approved elsewhere.

That has led to cargoes of rice and grain arriving at EU ports being
impounded by local authorities if sampling shows the presence of
unauthorised GM material, disrupting trade flows.

The statement was published jointly by Coceral, the EU's main food industry
association CIAA, animal feed manufacturers' body FEFAC, the Federation of
European Rice Millers, as well as flour and maize millers' associations.

CIAA's members include top food companies such as ADM, Cadbury Schweppes,
Danone and Unilever, to name but a few.

The six-strong group commissioned a study on the impacts of GMO
zero-tolerance on Europe's food sector, saying it led to extra costs, legal
uncertainty and increasing reliance on imports. Small and medium-sized
businesses were most at risk.

"The European food industry is urging policymakers to seek practical and
durable solutions," the statemenet said.

EU livestock producers depend heavily on imported soy products - beans,
meal - as a source of protein-rich and high-quality feed. Nearly all of it
comes from Argentina, Brazil and the United States, the world's top three
soybean producers.

Since these countries mainly grow GM varieties, non-biotech soy is becoming
increasingly difficult to source, they say. But green groups do not want any
changes, arguing that to alter zero-tolerance policy would be dangerous and
unnecessary.

"Zero tolerance and the speed of GMO approvals do not need to be changed.
These issues will not make any difference to the EU livestock industry's
current crisis," environment groups Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth
Europe said last month.

www.checkbiotech.org