ABSTRACT
Traceability is one of the current key aspects of the European food safety policy. It has rapidly gained importance in wake of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis, and currently, there is a widespread adoption of control and traceability systems in entire agri-food industry. Traceability also forms an essential aspect of risk management and will be a major requirement for postmarketing surveillance when genetically modified (GM) animals enter the consumer market. Transferability of equivalence of DNA and weight percentages to animals thus seems likely but will have to be confirmed and validated before it can be put to practice at regulatory level. The main traceability legislation is stipulated in European Commission (EC) regulation 1830/2003 concerning the traceability and labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the traceability of food and feed products produced from GMOs. The European Union (EU) law further requires that foods and ingredients that contain, or are directly produced from, GMOs must be clearly labeled as such.
