Bulgarian MP Warns about Slackened Control over GM Food

Right-wing MP Vanyo Sharkov has accused the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency of serious negligence, saying that the watchdog conducted only 61 tests for genetically-modified organisms (GMO) in 2011, or 5 probes a month.

The data was presented in a written response of Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov to a question Vanyo Sharkov.

According to the information, the Bulgarian food watchdog took only 21 food samples to test for GMO in the first nine months of 2012.

"The information shows a total lack of responsibility and a dangerously slackened control over foods containing GMO by the Agency," Sharkov commented.

The MP from the right-wing Blue Coalition argued that the small number of probes had made the Ministry of Agriculture and Food vow 85 probes by end-2012.

Bulgaria's Ministry of Agriculture and Food assured in response that no feeds or food products containing GMO had been detected on the Bulgarian market.

Meanwhile, the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) informed in 2012 about the distribution of microwave popcorn containing GMO on the Bulgarian market.

The GM microwave popcorn had a cheese flavor and had been imported from the Czech Republic.

According to the statement of Bulgaria's Agriculture Ministry, the food safety watchdog intervened by pulling out 62 packs of 100g, or 6,2 kg of popcorn, from the market and suspending their distribution.

Sharkov insisted that the food safety authority had shown negligence, adding that the issue of GM food on the Bulgarian market remained open.