EU court tightens rules for honey with genetically modified traces

Sep 7, 2011, 8:13 GMT

Luxembourg - European shoppers may soon have trouble finding certain kinds of honey, after the continent's highest court on Tuesday ruled that products with accidental traces of pollen from genetically modified crops must be pre-approved for sale.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its opinion at the request of a German court that has been pulled into a dispute between a German beekeeper and biotechnology company Monsanto.

Traces of genetically modified maize produced by Monsanto were discovered in 2005 in pollen-based food supplements and honey sold by the beekeeper, whose hives were located 500 metres from property on which the German state of Bavaria was growing Monsanto maize.

The beekeeper sued the state, arguing that the maize residue meant his products could no longer be sold.

The ECJ found that such products would have to undergo the authorization process for genetically modified organisms, regardless of how much of the pollen they contain or whether it had been introduced intentionally.

The decision was hailed by environmental groups, although a German Greenpeace official noted that the question of whether unwittingly affected beekeepers should be compensated remains open.

'Farming free of genetic engineering and agricultural genetic engineering cannot coexist. That is what today's decision of the European court shows,' Dirk Zimmermann said in a statement.

'Bees do not differentiate between genetically modified and other pollen,' he added. 'In the end, the genetically modified pollen lands in the honey and thus on the consumer's plate.'