Overview

The Amendment to this standard has been prepared by ISO/TC 34/SC 16 "Horizontal methods for molecular biomarker analysis" under the Vienna Agreement (ISO leadership). The European Mirror Committee is CEN/TC 275/WG 11 "Genetically modified foodstuffs" (secretariat: DIN). The collaboration of DIN in these standardization committees is performed through Working Committee NA 057-01-04 AA "Gentechnisch modifizierte Lebensmittel" ("Cosmetics") at NAL. Due to numerous European legislations it is necessary for consumer protection to verify if these foodstuffs are those containing genetically modified organisms. The search for ingredients of genetically modified origin is performed by means of the following successive or simultaneous steps. After sample collection, nucleic acids are extracted from the test portion. Extracted nucleic acids can be further purified, simultaneously or after the extraction process. Afterwards, they are quantified (if necessary), diluted (if necessary) and subjected to analytical procedures (such as PCR). These steps are detailed in the present and in the following International Standards. The standard DIN EN ISO 21570 provides the overall framework of quantitative methods for the detection of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foodstuffs, using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). It contains general requirements for the specific amplification of DNA target sequences, in order to quantify the relative GMO-derived DNA content and to confirm the identity of the amplified DNA sequence. Guidelines, minimum requirements and performance criteria are intended to ensure that comparable, accurate and reproducible results are obtained in different laboratories. The standard has been established for food matrices, but is also applicable to other matrices, for example, feed and plant samples from the environment. Specific examples of methods are provided in Annexes A to D. In this Amendment, the requirements for interpretation, expression of results and test report have been reformulated. Furthermore this Amendment contains a new method for each qualitative determination of the DNA in rice or tomatoes as Annexes A.2 and A.3.

Document: references other documents

Responsible national committee

NA 057-01-04 AA - Genetically modified foodstuffs  

Responsible european committee

CEN/TC 275/WG 11 - Genetically modified foodstuffs