Comment by TraceConsult™: It must have been quite a blow last week to the members of Svensk Mjölk, the Swedish Dairy Association, who, by no fault of their own, were suddenly unable to continue their claim of supplying GMO-free milk.
What had happened? Svenska Lantmännen, at 70 percent market share Sweden's largest distributor for animal nutrition, had inadvertently bought 1,200 tonnes of maize from its Dutch supplier, apparently material of Polish origin. Unfortunately, the cargo, ordered as GMO-free, contained 3.9 percent of MON810 maize. Legal in the EU, but too much to even be remotely considered as adventitious presence under EU Regulation (EC) No. 1829/2003. The shipment should have been labelled accordingly - and would certainly not have been accepted by Lantmännen.Lantmännen Lantbruk's quality system caught the mistake, but apparently not before 100 tonnes were sold and shipped to dairy farmers. Dairy processors from giant Arla to regional Skånemejerier were affected and naturally upset.
The way Lantmännen has handled the incident seems perfectly appropriate both from a legal and a from a communication point of view. MON810 maize is legal in the EU and they revealed the facts as soon as they became known.
But is that enough?
The ones left with a problem clearly are the dairy farmers who received the 100 tonnes of contaminated feed and the dairy processors who are now stuck with volumes of illegally claimed milk plus a credibility problem with the consumers.
Not knowing the fine print of the supply agreements for the maize nor for the compound feed (nor for the milk) we dare assume that they are rather lax. Lantmännen's official statement on the incident says that feed and raw ingredients "must be labelled as containing GMOs if the presence of GMOs exceeds 0.9%."
At the risk that we will be accused of splitting hairs, this is not quite so. What the EU labeling regulation says is that all GMO content must be labeled unless the GMO presence is adventitious or technically unavoidable and does not exceed 0.9 percent. We realize that a strong faction in the European feed industry refuses to accept this fact but, hey, it's been the law since 18 April 2004! So they have had enough time to get used to it.
The contamination of the compound feed would have been technically quite easily avoidable if sampling and testing were part of Lantmännen's or the Dutch trading company's ongoing quality system. Apparently this is not the case.
And adventitious, meaning as much as accidental, this contamination does not seem to be either. Again, we refer to Lantmännen's own online statement shown below: If the company is convinced that all it takes for "GMO-free" is to stay below 0.9 percent GMO content the probability that the supply agreement only calls for "less than 0.9 percent GMOs" or something similar is very high. But exactly that renders an adventitious presence impossible.
The EU Member States Austria, Germany and Italy have set up their own national regulations stipulating "GMO-free" claims. France is about to join this rank. Contrary to widespread belief, with the right national regulation in place, industry players can relax about low-level contamination up to 0.9 percent and still continue with their "GMO-free" claim.
But that doesn't help Arla or Skånemejerier. They will have to recall their products, explain things to the private consumers and seek remedy from - their dairy farmers?
http://direkt.lantmannen.com/aciro/websidor/VisaSida.asp?Idnr=3t6RFjDdKu3LWEx8gUZLggXva11qN6oFkGIDGaDvgOg1EI0ZTWKbTNVWOIQd
Lantmännen Lantbruk
High level of GMO content detected in maize sample for Swedish dairy
Svenska text längre ner
Please scroll down for original text in Swedish
PR by Svenska Lantmännen - 13 July 2009
The maize batch was checked in its own control program for GMOs, and a test showed it contained too high a level of GM material to qualify as a GMO-free product. Interested customers are informed and all further use of maize as GM-free is stopped.
Lantmännen's own supervision system discovered a batch of maize with an excessive content of GMO to qualify as a GMO-free product. Up to 0.9% GMOs are permitted in a GMO-free raw material and in our control, we have measured 3.9% contamination. The regulation is that the product must be labelled as containing GMOs if the presence of GMOs exceeds 0.9%.
Lantmännen Lantbruk has distributed feed products without correct labelling. There is no health risk to animals eating the feed but we would, of course, like to inform our customers if the levels of GMOs are too high in a maize consignment to qualify as GMO-free product. The industry organization Swedish Milk and the Swedish Board of Agriculture were informed.
Beyond the control of the authorities, we provide considerable resources for supervision in order to ensure the quality of our products so our customers can feel safe.
For questions, please contact Kjell Larsson, feed security 070-536 93 42.
http://www.atl.nu/Article.jsp?article=54501
ATL
Lantbrukets Affärstidning
Svenska text längre ner
Please scroll down for original text in Swedish (unavailable)
Unable to guarantee GMO-free milk
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Under the above date and headline, ATL has published an article pointing out that Swedish dairy producer Arla is unable to continue the GM-free claim on its milk because its dairy farmers had been sold 100 tonnes of animal feed contaminated with GMO maize by two Lantmännen plants.
All this occurred before Lantmännen had its maize supply tested in a routine check resulting in a discontinuation of selling the compound feed. 50 dairy and pig farmers had already received the contaminated feed.
"Our contract says that we shall get European produced GMO-free maize. We know from the shipping documents that the goods are loaded in Poland. We believe that the maize was cultivated there as well, but we are wondering when it became contaminated", ATL quotes Kjell Larsson, Lantmännen’s Quality and R & D Manager.
According to him, a Dutch trading house supplied the Polish-grown maize; neither they nor Lantmännen know the cause of the contamination but want to investigate.
ATL quotes Larsson as saying that both companies feel embarrassed, Lantmännen even finds the situation “unacceptable”. According to the paper, they have notified the affected farmers in writing and called the dairy companies.
Also thus informed, Arla’s press manager Tobias Wahl is to have said, "Now we cannot keep that promise, which is a concern. There is nothing we can do. We do not know which farms got affected and the feed has probably already been consumed".
ATL states that “[f]or a product to be considered as GMO-free, content may not exceed 0.9 percent.” It adds that the cargo tested at 3.9% GMO content of MON810, the only GM maize variety approved for cultivation in the EU.
Kjell Larsson is quoted again saying, "This just shows that Europe is full of GMOs, although we do not want to see it."
It is stated that while cows are not affected in their milk quality by GM feed consumption, Svensk Mjölk, the Swedish Dairy Association prefers exclusively GM-free feed for dairy cows citing consumer concerns.
ATL quotes Skånemejerier's Board Chairman and dairy farmer, Anders Olsson, as saying, "This is entirely Lantmännen's responsibility. They must have lacking in its quality assurance system. Swedish dairies should be GMO-free.” He feels he should be notified if his own farm was supplied the GM feed.
http://direkt.lantmannen.com/aciro/websidor/VisaSida.asp?Idnr=3t6RFjDdKu3LWEx8gUZLggXva11qN6oFkGIDGaDvgOg1EI0ZTWKbTNVWOIQd
Lantmännen Lantbruk
Please scroll up for English translation
Vid en provtagning har ett parti majs påvisats med för hög halt av GMO
Svenska Lantmännen PR - 2009-07-13
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Majspartiet har i ordinarie egenkontrollprogram provtagits för GMO och provsvaret visar en för hög halt av GMO för att kunna betecknas som GMO-fri vara. Berörda kunder är informerade och all vidare användning av majsen som GMO-fri är stoppad. I Lantmännens egenkontroll har upptäckts ett parti majs som har för hög inblandning av GMO för att kunna användas som GMO-fri vara. Det är tillåtet att det finns 0,9 % GMO i en GMO-fri råvara och i vår kontroll har vi uppmätt 3,9 % inblandning. De regler som finns innebär att produkten måste vara märkt med information om att den innehåller GMO när innehållet av GMO överstiger 0,9 %. Lantmännen Lantbruk har levererat foderprodukter utan rätt märkning. Det finns ingen hälsorisk för djur att äta fodret men vi vill givetvis informera våra kunder om att halten av GMO är för hög i det aktuella majspartiet för att kunna betecknas som GMO-fri vara. Branschorganisationen Svensk Mjölk samt Statens Jordbruksverk är informerade. Vi lägger stora resurser på egenkontrollprogram, utöver myndigheternas kontroll, för att kvalitetssäkra våra produkter så att våra kunder ska kunna känna sig trygga.
Vid frågor kontakta Kjell Larsson, fodersäkerhetsansvarig 070-536 93 42.
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ATL
Lantbrukets Affärstidning
Please scroll up for English translation
Kan inte garantera gmo-fri mjölk
Torsdag 16 juli 2009
<We sincerely regret that for reasons of intellectual property rights we are unable to bring you the original article by ATL in Swedish. Please scroll up for the English summary.>eNews and Background Info by TraceConsult™ are for information purposes only and come from sources we believe to be reliable. However, no liability can be assumed for the correctness of facts reported or any predictions made. Views and opinions expressed are entirely those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect those of TraceConsult.