Member States voted on 16 January in favour of lifting the EU requirement for all imports of US corn gluten feed and brewers' grain to be certified as free from the GMO Bt10.

The certification requirements were introduced in April 2005, following an alert from the US authorities that this unauthorised GMO had been inadvertently exported to the EU (see IP/05/437). Member States were also required to carry out thorough monitoring of GM food products on their markets and report back to the Commission on any findings of Bt10. Bt10 was only detected once (in May 2005) in a US shipment to the EU and on this occasion it was stopped at the border so the contaminated product did not reach the EU market.

The last case of Bt10 detected in the USA was in early November 2005 and Syngenta, the company responsible for developing Bt10, has taken a series of measures to ensure that this GMO is no longer propagated.

The Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health therefore agreed with the Commission that the emergency measures against Bt10 are no longer necessary. However, as a precautionary measure Member States must continue to carry out random testing for BT10 at the current level for six months. Should any traces be detected, the national authorities must immediately send a notification through the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed.

For more information, see http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/biotechnology/index_en.htm