Molecular biological detection of transgenic plant components in feed and food: application of a qualitative and a quantitative method of analysis

In accordance with regulations (EG) No. 1139/98 and (EG) No. 49/2000 food a nd food ingredients containing genetically modified soy or maize must be la belled as such from the threshold of 1 %. Presently, there are no comparabl e legally regulations for feed with genetically modified plant components. In this study, 98 different agriculturally used feed were analysed qualitat ively ( 35 LMBG method) and quantitatively (real-time PCR with LightCycler) with regard to genetically modified DNA sequences. Altogether, 89 % of sam ples containing soy also contained Roundup Ready(TM) soy; in 5.5 % of sampl es containing maize transgenic maize was detected. The methods of 35 LMBG a pplicable for food can also be applied to feed. The quantitative results ob tained with the LightCycler and commercially available kits clearly showed, that in contrast to food most of the feed contained transgenic soy materia l in excess of 50 %. Therefore, mandatory labelling of genetically modified ingredients in feed should be legally regulated as soon as possible. The r esults of a comparison of different commercially available kits for the Lig htCycler demonstrated, that the standardisation and validation of the quant itative PCR methods of analysis are urgently required.