No allowable GE contamination level, committee told

12.00pm - By SHARON LUNDY

The man who made the decision not to destroy allegedly genetically engineered (GE) corn seed remains adamant there was never an allowable contamination level.

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) plants biosecurity officer Richard Ivess was appearing before the local government and environment select committee, chaired by Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons, which is inquiring into an incident involving the alleged planting of GE-contaminated corn in 2000.

Author Nicky Hager alleged the GE release and subsequent government cover-up in his book Seeds of Distrust, published during the election campaign in July last year.

A central issue was industry lobbying for an allowable level of contamination -- lobbying that Mr Ivess said was not effective.

"Whenever we take a sample size for inspection, we have a probability that a level will be detected and the level of 0.5 (per cent) was what we were suggesting," Mr Ivess said.

The 0.5 per cent refers to the level at which contamination can be 99 per cent reliably detected; lower detection is possible but not at 99 per cent accuracy.

"The 0.5 per cent level ... was the lowest level that a test for the presence of GMOs (genetically modified organism) could be reliably repeated."

Ms Fitzsimons disputed that 0.5 per cent was the lowest level of reliable detection, saying it could go as low as 0.1 per cent and that she would return to the issue at a later stage of the inquiry.

Mr Ivess told the committee the possible contamination was the first of its type and that there were no standards to deal with it anywhere in the world.

The industry had lobbied hard for a tolerance level as it believed it would be impossible to have a 100 per cent guarantee of "absolute freedom from any form of contamination", he said.

"Hence, in order to enable importation or trade to occur, there would have to be some form of background or minimum contamination level that would be there as a result of ... practice that is currently used."

Officials had not given into the pressure, Mr Ivess said.

"The permissible level that I was arguing was for a tolerance that would allow an inspection, a sample size, to be detected," he said.

Mr Ivess had made the final decision not to destroy the seed, based on the scientific facts available to him at the time.

- NZPA