Feed

Possible application of biotechnology

Supplementary feed that farming businesses buy in addition to their own produce may contain raw materials and additives produced from GM crops or with the aid of GM micro-organisms.

Plant-based feed

• GM varieties of the following crops are used as feed: soybeans, maize, rapeseed, cotton and sugar beet. Of these, only GM varieties of maize are cultivated in Europe; their area of cultivation is relatively small.
• In the US, Argentina and Brazil the cultivation of soybeans is dominated by GM varieties. On the European market, feed containing soy products usually includes a certain share of GM soybeans. However, Brazil also exports identity preserved non-GM soybeans. Feed from such soybeans may be labelled "GM free" if the adventitious and technically unavoidable presence of GM material is below 0.9 per cent.

Feed additives:

A number of different feed additives can be produced with the aid of GM micro-organisms.

• Vitamins: vitamin B2, vitamin B12 and biotin 
• Amino acids like lysine, methionine and threonine
• Enzymes like phytase, cellulase, xylanase, glucanase, amylases
• Colouring agent beta-carotene

In some of these cases production processes based on biotechnology dominate.

Feed from bacterial biomass

• The company Ajinomoto has submitted two applications for approval for dried bacterial biomass as feed additive. This biomass is a by-product in the production process of amino acids such as lysine or threonine. It consists of dead E.coli bacteria cells, which are genetically modified. They plan to sell bacterial protein from these cells in the form of pellets to provide feed for pigs, fish and ruminants e.g. dairy cows.

Labelling of feed: Labelling of feed components is mandatory:

• if the components are produced from GM crops or contain more than 0.9 per cent of adventitious and technically unavoidable admixtures of GM material;
• if the components are GM micro-organisms or contain any of these.

Labelling is not mandatory:

• if components or additives were merely produced with the aid of GM micro-organisms but do not contain traces of the organisms.

In this case, labelling always concerns the feed itself and is intended to inform the farmer. No labelling is required for food products derived from animals fed on GM feed, such as milk, meat or eggs.

"GM-free" label

Milk, meat, eggs and other animal derived food products can be labelled as "GM-free" if, for a certain period of time, no GM feed was fed to the animals. For pigs this period is four months before slaughtering; dairy animals have to be fed on non-GM feed for at least three months and layers for at least three weeks before milk or eggs can be sold as "GM-free".

Feed additives like vitamin A, amino acids or enzymes whose production involves GM micro-organisms are allowed in "GM-free" products. Furthermore, animals can be treated with drugs or vaccines that were produced using genetic engineering and still be lablelled "GM-free".

Adventitious, technically unavoidable admixtures of approved GM crops in feed are not subject to mandatory labelling unless they exceed a maximum content of 0.9 per cent.