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The Food and Agriculture Office (FAO) of the United Nations & World Health Organisation have relaunched the promotion of their database of GM foods.

This public database is primarily intended as a search-tool for safety assessments of authorised GM foods. It can, however, also be used to search (by commodity, or by OECD reference number) for which GM foods are authorised in which territories, and for the traits and characteristics of different GM varieties.  We have added it to FAN's index of "authentic food" databases.

The GM Foods database is open access to read but only approved authorities can upload entries.

You can access the database here

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Unauthorized GM (UGM) refers to those GM crops or products that have not received approval in a particular country..

DNA-based methods are preferred for testing of raw or partially processed food products.  More heavily processed food can be more of an analytical challenge; DNA methods are still applicable provided the quality of DNA enables amplification despite being hampered by the processing procedures or presence of inhibitors or due to complexity in composition in terms of ingredients.

This review (purchase required) focused on possible approaches for adhering to the regulatory requirements while verifying UGM in processed food products. Technical challenges and approaches for extracting purified DNA and necessary quality checks are described. The article covers amplification as well as sequencing-based methods which can be applied to check for presence of UGM ingredients amongst a complex mix of other ingredients. The authors discuss the comparative assessment of these methods in the context of regulatory testing requirements and availability of information of transgenic DNA.

Photo by Kseniya Nekrasova on Unsplash