New set of GM soya bean certified reference materials released

A new set of GMO certified reference materials (CRMs) was developed by the JRC. This GMO is composed of five CRMs, certified for their mass fraction of GTS 40-3-2 soya. The CRMs are important for quality control of methods applied to quantify GMOs in food and feed products.

The new genetically modified (GM) soy bean GTS 40-3-2 soya was developed by Monsanto (US) with the unique identifier code MON-Ø4Ø32-6, trade mark Roundup ReadyTM soybean, as a transgenic herbicide tolerant crop. The GM event contains the gene coding the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) that gives the plant resistance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup®.

EU Regulation No 1829/2003 requests that reference materials are made available for GMO events authorised for the EU food and feed market. Therefore, the JRC produced and released a new set of CRMs for GTS 40-3-2 soya bean event under the code ERM-BF410p, with nominal GTS 40-3-2 soya concentration levels of 0 %, 0.1 %, 1 %, 10 % and 100 %.

ERM-BF410p will replace the older set of GMO CRMs GTS 40-3-2 soya and will enable GMO testing laboratories to continue quantifying the GTS 40-3-2 soya bean and to implement the labelling threshold for food and feed products according to EU regulation. Because the measurement system is established by the combination of CRM and method, GMO testing laboratories are advised to start new quality control charts when changing to the set of CRMs.

ERM-BF410ap and ERM-BF410bp are available in the online catalogue.