Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 171: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the procedures in place to test imported foodstuffs for genetically modified content. [19020/05]

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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The Food Safety Authority of Ireland or FSAI is the competent authority in Ireland for the enforcement of EU legislation regarding genetically modified or GM foods. The FSAI carries out checks of the marketplace for compliance with the GM legislation. Under EU rules, only authorised GM foods or foods containing ingredients thereof can be placed on the market. New legislation which came into force in 2004 stipulates that persons wishing to place GM foods on the market must provide material and information to enable testing for specific GMOs or genetically modified organisms before they may be authorised for marketing.

The FSAI has carried out a number of surveys of the food supply chain in recent years and has employed both the State Laboratory as well as a private laboratory to carry out testing of the genetic material or DNA in a range of foods using a technique called polymerase chain reaction or PCR. One of the uses of this highly sensitive technique is to allow for the testing for the presence and sometimes the amount of a genetically modified organism or GMO present in a food. The EU Joint Research Centre, based in Ispra in Italy, has undertaken to standardise how GMOs and derived food and feed are tested using PCR and a number of tests have already been developed.

The FSAI has recently published a report on its surveillance of foods carrying GM free labels. This type of label had been identified as a potential problem in previous surveys. The results show that a small number of products with GM free labels contained low levels of GM ingredients. The FSAI is following up on this matter with the companies concerned. In addition, a number of foods with GM free labels had no ingredients that could be from a GM source, which meant that such labels in those cases were merely a marketing tool rather than for consumer information.