Monitoring the prevalence of genetically modified maize in commercial animal feeds and food products in Turkey.
BACKGROUND
EU legislation strictly controls use of genetically modified (GM) crops in food and feed products, and requires them to be labelled if the total GM content is greater than 9 g kg(-1) (for approved GM crops). We screened maize-containing food and feed products from Turkey to assess the prevalence of GM material.


RESULTS
With this aim, 83 food and feed products - none labelled as containing GM material - were screened using multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for four common GM elements (35S/NOS/bar/FMV). Of these, 18.2% of feeds and 6% of food samples tested positive for one or more of these elements, and were subjected to event-specific PCR to identify which GM organisms they contained. Most samples were negative for the approved GM events tested, suggesting that they may contain adventitious GM contaminants. One sample was shown to contain an unapproved GM event (MON810, along with GA21) at a concentration well above the statutory labelling requirement.


CONCLUSIONS
Current legislation has restricted the penetration of GM maize into the Turkish food industry but not eliminated it, and the proliferation of different GM events is making monitoring increasingly complex. Our results indicate that labelling requirements are not being followed in some cases. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.
Uludag University, Mustafa Kemalpasa Vocational School, Department of Plant and Animal Production, 16500, Bursa, Turkey.
Aydin
A
Turkec
Sabanci University, Nanotechnology Research and Application Centre, Orhanlı, 34956, Tuzla, Istanbul, Turkey.
Stuart J
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3059-7453
SJ
Lucas
Sabanci University, Nanotechnology Research and Application Centre, Orhanlı, 34956, Tuzla, Istanbul, Turkey.
Elif
E
Karlık
D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis*; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000032:analysis; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis; D019649:Food Industry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D005515:Food Labeling; D059022:Food Safety; D005524:Food Technology; D030841:Food, Genetically Modified; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics*; D015995:Prevalence; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D014421:Turkey; D003313:Zea mays / Q000235:genetics*
D018744:DNA, Plant
GMO quantification; Zea mays L; food safety; genetically modified organism (GMO); maize; real‐time PCR