Incident details
| Region/Continent and country: |
| Europe / Germany |
| Category of incident: |
Contamination
|
| What was contaminated: |
| Food |
| GM organism involved: |
| Flax |
| Year incident occurred: |
| 2009 |
|
| Route of contamination |
| Unknown at present but, probably illegal planting in Canada |
|
|
 |
Germany - finds illegal GM flax imported from Canada
On 8th September, the German authorities notified other EU member states that they had identified unauthorised genetically modified flax amongst a consignment from Canada via Belgium.
The flax has been genetically modified to be tolerant to sulfonylurea-based herbicides. It was approved for commercial growing by the Canadian Government in 1998. But, wishing to protect their export markets to Europe, the Flax Council of Canada and the Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission convinced the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to remove the variety registration for the GM flax in 2001, making it illegal to grow.
In 2001 about 40 farmers were multiplying 200,000 bushels of seed for future use but this was all crushed when the flax was taken off the market that year.
Canada is the world's leader in the production and export of flax. Canada currently ships 60% of its flax exports to the EU, 30% to the United States, and 4% to Japan. Between 500,000-700,000 bushels go to Europe. Before the contamination scandal, cash bids for flax in Manitoba were 9.90-9.92 a bushel. But just based on rumour, before contamination was confirmed, flax bids in Manitoba were down to $6.78 a bushel. This is a fall in price of 32% before the GM contamination was even confirmed.
Following the initial contamination report the German authorities have submitted many more reports of flax contamination.
| Date |
Imported from |
Distributed to |
RASFF* number |
| 8 September |
From Canada, via Belgium |
Switzerland and Poland |
2009.1171 |
| 11 September |
Canada via Belgium |
Germany. Austria and Mauritius |
2009.1198 |
| 15 September |
Canada via Belgium and Netherlands |
Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and Switzerland. |
2009.1208 |
| 18 September |
Canada |
Germany and Austria |
2009.1228 |
| 21 September |
Canada |
Germany and Luxembourg |
2009.1232 |
| 24 September |
Canada via Belgium |
Germany. Austria and Mauritius |
2009.1247 |
| 1 October |
Canada via Belgium |
Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom |
2009.1267 |
| 2 October |
via Belgium |
Germany only |
2009.1270 |
| 5 October |
In animal feed within Germany |
Germany only |
3 cases: 2009.1279, 2009.1281 & 2009.1286 |
| 6 October |
Canada via Belgium |
Egypt, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain & Switzerland |
2 cases: 2009.1289 & 2009.1290 |
| 7 October |
Canada via Belgium |
Germany & Mauritius |
2 cases: 2009.1297 & 2009.1298 |
| 8 October |
Canada via Belgium or The Netherlands |
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Poland & Spain |
6 cases: 2009.1308, 2009.1309, 2009.1311, 2009.1313, 2009.1314 & 2009.1316 |
| 9 October |
Canada |
Germany only |
2009.1318 |
| 13 October |
Canada, direct or via Poland or Belgium |
Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia |
4 cases: 2009.1339, 2009.1340, 2009.1341 & 2009.1342 |
| 14 October |
Canada via Belgium |
Austria and Germany |
2 cases: 2009.1349 & 2009.1351 |
| 15 October |
Canada via Belgium |
Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom |
2009.1363 |
| 21 October |
Canada via Belgium |
Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary & Slovenia, |
2 cases: 2009.1397 & 2009.1400 |
| 22 October |
Canada via Belgium |
Germany, Italy, Malta, Portugal |
2009.1414 |
| 28 October |
Canada |
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland & United Kingdom |
2009.1462 |
| 29 October |
Canada via Belgium |
Austria & Germany |
2009.1472 |
| 30 October |
Canada via Belgium |
Austria and Germany |
2009.1474 |
| 3 November |
Canada via Belgium |
Germany |
2009.1489 |
| 4 November |
Candia via either Belgium or Netherlands |
Germany |
2 cases: 2009.1501 & 2009.1506 |
| 6 November |
Canada via Belgium |
Germany |
2009.1531 |
| 12 November |
Canada via Belgium |
Austria, Germany & Spain |
2009.1554 |
| 16 November |
Canada via Belgium |
Germany |
2009.1585 |
| 9 December |
Canada via Belgium |
Germany & Switzerland |
2009.1708 |
| 10 December |
Canada |
Germany and Norway |
2009.1716 |
| 10 February 2010 |
Canada |
Germany |
2010.0160 |
*The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) is used by the EU Member States, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland. It was put in place to provide food and feed control authorities with an effective tool to exchange information about measures taken responding to serious risks detected in relation to food or feed.
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Further information
RASSF Notification details >
Canadian Biotechnology Action Network: 10 September 2009. Press release. Illegal GM Flax Contaminates Canadian Exports: Contamination of European food threatens Canadian export markets >
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