Brussels, 09/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - Prior authorisation is required for the sale of honey containing even small amounts of pollen from genetically-modified corn (MON 810) and national authorities must take measures to remedy any problems arising from the co-existence of genetically-modified crops and normal crops whenever the solution to such problems does not derive directly from EU law.
The above is the substance of an Opinion issued on 9 February by European Court of Justice Advocate General Yves Bot in Case C-442/09, answering various questions from the Bavarian Verwaltungsgerichtshof (appeals court) about application of EU Regulation 1829/2003 on genetically-modified food.
The Bavarian Verwaltungsgerichtshof was asked to rule in a case between the Land (region) of Bavaria and an amateur beekeeper whose honey and pollen were rendered unfit for sale because of the presence of genetically-modified maize from farmland owned by the state (the Land of Bavaria). The court was asked whether the presence of contamination from genetically-modified pollen in the honey and pollen amounted to a “substantial alteration” to them which would require them to be given authorisation before they can be sold on the market.
The judge ruled that pollen from MON 810 genetically-modified maize quickly loses its fertility as a result of desiccation and becomes inanimate material. Although that material may still contain genetic information, the simple presence in it of DNA and the possible incorporation of that DNA by other organisms does not thereby mean that the dead organism is still capable of actively transferring genetic material. Whether the genetically-modified organism was introduced deliberately or accidentally is not relevant, he says, because the danger to human health from GMOs exists whether the GMOs are used deliberately or accidentally.
Therefore prior authorisation is required for the sale of pollen. The fact that the pollen in the honey comes from an authorised GMO, which may be legally disseminated in the environment and that other food made from MON 810 can be sold as foodstuffs does not apply here because the pollen is not covered by authorisation under EU Regulation 1829/2003.
Until now, the EU rules requires any product containing 0.9% or more of genetically-modified material to be labelled as “containing GMO” but such labelling did not used to be required for accidental or technically unavoidable GMO content as a result of pollination. (F.G./transl.fl)