Determination of GMOs in commercial sheep feed and home-made maize pasta : report of the EURL GMFF proficiency test GMFF-23/02

Implementation of the European legislation on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) requires the monitoring of the presence of GMOs in food or feed by analytical tests. The analytical tests are carried out by laboratories designated for official controls by the EU Member States. In line with Regulation (EU) 2017/625 on official controls, the European Union Reference Laboratory for Genetically Modified Food and Feed (EURL GMFF) organises proficiency tests (PTs) to assess the uniform and reliable performance of these control laboratories. -23/02 sheep feed and maize pasta. The two test items analysed in this PT consisted of a commercial sheep feed characterised by the presence of three GM soybean events (T1) and maize pasta spiked with GM maize event 1507 and prepared from maize flour in the laboratory (T2). Fifty-five laboratories participated to the PT round, including 44 National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) from 23 EU Member States, 8 EU Official Control Laboratories (OCLs) and 3 OCLs from EU-neighbouring or EFTA countries, including Switzerland. The evaluation of the analytical performance confirms that most laboratories are able to identify and accurately quantify GMOs in these food and feed samples.