Testbiotech participated in a consultation by the European Commission on its planned simplification initiative concerning standards for food and feed safety. The initiative could also cause lowering standards for risk assessment and labelling of products derived from genetically engineered microorganisms such as enzymes used in food production.
However, as recent cases show, it is necessary to raise the current standards in order to strengthen safety and consumer trust. Therefore, Testbiotech calls for existing regulations to be simplified only if this increases transparency and food safety.
In its contribution to the consultation, Testbiotech is arguing with the case of the so-called ‘Impossible Burger’. It was developed by a US company which used genetic engineering (GE) to develop a blood-like dye (soy leghemoglobin) that imitates the taste and appearance of meat. The company produces the substance using GE yeast, and now wants to add it to its meat substitute products in the EU.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which is responsible for risk assessment, published its opinion on GE leghemoglobin in 2024. However, relevant parts of the opinion were redacted as confidential business information, thus making relevant data for risk assessment inaccessible to external experts or the general public. This is in contrast to EU legislation, which states that all risk-relevant data must be made publicly available. After requests and complaints from the European Parliament and Testbiotech, EFSA just recently re-published their opinion. However, most of the relevant information still is blackened and only very minor improvement is made in regard to transparency. Testbiotech demands that in its planned initiative, the Commission should take measures to avoid such a chaotic handling and hiding of risk relevant data and instead make them publicly available right away, as requested by EU law.
Furthermore, Testbiotech highlights that within the last decade, there were several cases of large-scale contamination with GE bacteria in the food chain. For example, in 2024, the Belgian institute for health Sciensano published findings showing that they had detected contamination with genes conferring antibiotic resistance in almost 48% of the enzyme preparations they tested that are used in food production. They point out the need for adequate detection methods to prevent similar cases in future. However, such methods are not currently required by EU law. Testbiotech demands that in its planned initiative, the Commission should take measures to make available adequate test methods to identify and avoid such risky contamination within the food chain.
According to Testbiotech, all products derived from or produced with GE microorganisms should be subjected to mandatory risk assessment and labelling. The producers should be obliged to provide methods for the detection and identification of the GE organisms. All risk relevant data should be made available to the public.
Contact:
Christoph Then, info@testbiotech.org, Tel + 49 151 54638040
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