ROME - The presence of unauthorised genetically modified (GM) material in seeds is inevitable, an EU scientific committee has said. The Scientific Committee on Plants (SCP) also said the EU may have to revise its threshold for the compulsory labelling of food that may unintentionally contain GM material. Any such a revision would appear be upwards, according to sources familiar with the report.

"The Committee is of the opinion that a zero level of unauthorised GM seed is unobtainable in practice," it said in a report dated March 13. "The SCP is of the opinion that with the scientific knowledge currently available the thresholds of 0.3 percent for cross-pollinated crops and 0.5 percent for self-pollinated ...crops (being considered by the Commission)...will only be achieved under ideal seed production conditions," the SCP said.

"Achieving the 0.3 percent and 0.5 percent thresholds will become increasingly difficult as GM crop production increases in Europe," it added. In October 1999 the European Commission ruled that all food products sold in the EU must be labelled as containing GM material if at least one of their ingredients contained at least one percent GM DNA or protein. Below that threshold, there is no labelling requirement. "In due course the one percent threshold set by the (European) Commission may have to be revised," the SCP said.

The European Commission is reviewing the opinions of the committee and has not yet reacted to the report, entitled "Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Plants concerning the adventitious presence of GM seeds in conventional seeds".

"ZERO TOLERANCE" CHALLENGE

The opinion of the committee would clash with the "zero tolerance" policy of Italian authorities, for example, who last week seized seeds suspected of containing unauthorised GM material from U.S. biotech group Monsanto. Following the seizures, Italian Farm Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, warning of possible "genetic pollution" of agriculture due to the risk of spread of GM material by cross-pollination, ordered checks of 21 seed companies.

Pecoraro Scanio, a member of the Greens party and a staunch opponent of GM foods, has asked Milan authorities to suspend Monsanto's seed import licence because he said the company had imported seeds containing GM material. The use of GM seeds in open fields is forbidden by law in Italy due to worries over their possible health and environmental impact. Monsanto has insisted it conformed to regulations, and said it is usual for minimal traces of genetic material to contaminate seeds in the production process.

The Bologna-based Italian Seed Association sent a letter to Pecoraro Scanio in October saying it was not possible to guarantee seeds wholly free of genetic material.

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