CO-EXTRA

Context

The new regulatory framework concerning the food safety and the genetic modified organisms (GMO) or derived products (e.g. 178/02/EC, 1829/03/EC) aims at reinforcing the confidence of consumers by providing the traceability and control methods of food and foodstuffs. Moreover, these new regulations, together with EU’s guidelines, attempt to allow the co-existence of GMO and non-GMO based agricultural supply chains. Several research programmes (e.g. SIGMEA, TRACE, Co-Extra) have been so far launched by the EC through its FP6 to provide policymakers and stakeholders with tools to support its policy.

Objectives

Co-Extra aims to: - develop comprehensive tools and methodologies and integrate them along with existing ones into embedded decision-support systems aimed at enabling co-existence between GM and non GM (conventional and organic) crops; - trace of genetically modified organism (GMO) materials and derived products, along the food and feed chains; - anticipate the future expansion of GMOs in both quantitative as well as qualitative terms

Description of tasks

Co-Extra (http://www.coextra.net) is an Integrated Project of the European Commission involving 52 partners with expertise (scientific, legal, ethical, economic, consumers behaviour, …) in all aspects needed for food and feed supply chains management.

Expected results

Co-Extra will study and validate biological containment methods and model supply chain organisations and provide practical tools and methods for implementing co–existence. In parallel, Co-Extra will design and integrate GMO detection tools, develop sampling plans, and elaborate new techniques to meet the challenges raised by increased demands for cost effective multiplex methods to detect as yet unapproved or unexamined GMOs (or even GMOs with stacked genes). Co-Extra will also study and propose the most appropriate information structure, content and flow management for ensuring reliable and cost-effective documentary traceability. All the methods and tools that will be studied and developed will be assessed not only from the technical point of view but also with regard to economic and legal aspects. In parallel, to promote harmonisation of co-existence and traceability practices around the world, Co-Extra will survey the GMO-related legal regimes and practices that exist in and beyond the EU. Stakeholders will be involved in the project from the start through the dialogue platform, editorial offices, focus groups, national relays, etc. Co-Extra outcomes will contribute to reinforcing consumers’ confidence in labelling claims and therefore EU products at large. By helping economic stakeholders to meet consumers’ requirements for reliable choices, Co-Extra will improve European competitiveness. When appropriated, Co-Extra outcomes will be proposed to standardisation after validation. Dissemination activities will largely benefit from the strong commitment of the European Network Laboratories (ENGL).

Contribution

The CRA-W is involved in four tasks in Co-Extra: - The first task is to develop efficient control and sampling plans for the food and feed supply chains to trace the GMs. Our contribution in this part aims to obtain a representative test portion (from the laboratory sample) in order to perform reliable GMO detection and quantitation. - The second one is to evaluate different chemistries and apparatus of real-time quantitative PCR to increase the reliability of the methods. Our laboratory is taking part in the design of the experiments and will insure the comparison between -at last- two apparatus. - The third one is to assess the possibilities and limitations of some physical GMO detection methods. The first approach to be evaluated is hyperspectral NIR for its potential for on site use, cost effectiveness and non-invasiveness. Some newly emerging technology might be approached in the second part of the project. - The last task concerns the validation of methods : CRA-W will participate in interlaboratories assays. The outcomes of these studies will be compiled and disseminated. Ways to link to a database of validated methods and a database containing the up-to-date worldwide information about the authorized GM constructs will be elaborated.

Partners

The Co-Extra consortium coordinated by the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA, France) includes 52 financed partners (official laboratories, research centres, universities and private companies) from 18 EU countries. To achieve its multi-dimensional objectives, the Co-Extra consortium has gathered a truly multidisciplinary partnership covering all of the competences that are needed to address co-existence and traceability issues from seed to consumer. The teams that participate to the consortium are acknowledged by their excellence in the domains of GMO detection and co-existence between GM, conventional and biological crops. Most of them are or were collaborating in large international programmes such as QPCRGMOFOOD, GMOChips and SIGMEA. A large part of the Co-Extra partners are also members of several standardisation bodies. The Co-Extra consortium also comprises several industrial companies including biotechnology-specialised companies. They will provide the project with the industry’s point of view on the one hand, and their expertise on dialogue with stakeholders on the other hand.