EU-RL GMFF guidance on testing for GM glyphosate-resistant wheat (MON71800) in wheat grain or in food/feed products containing wheat flour originating or consigned from the US

Following the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announcement that test results confirm the finding of unauthorised GM glyphosate-resistant wheat "volunteer" plants in a farm in Oregon harbouring the event MON71800, DG SANCO has asked the European Union Reference laboratory for Genetically Modified Food and Feed (EU-RL GMFF) to provide National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) as soon as possible with a method to test wheat consignments for the presence of this Genetically modified organism (GMO). The EU-RL GMFF has developed the interim strategy detailed below that should be replaced or amended by an event-specific method as soon as this will be considered suitable for the purpose. The information made already available by Monsanto suggests that the event MON71800 would react with two widely used element-specific methods, namely CaMV 35S promoter (P-35S) and nopaline synthase terminator (T-nos) and with the construct-specific method CTP2-CP4epsps 1.