The European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy prioritise transitioning to sustainable farming and food systems. They acknowledge the potential of new innovative techniques to enhance sustainability, provided they ensure safety for consumers and the environment while benefiting society.
Traceability, authenticity, and transparency are key priorities of the Farm to Fork Strategy. Existing GMO detection methods may not apply to products derived from new genomic techniques (NGTs), as defined by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in 2021. These products often lack specific targets used in traditional GMO detection, such as promoters/terminators or event-specific sequences. The challenge lies not only in methodology but also in differentiating these genetically modified products from non-regulated ones.
Given this context, DETECTIVE aims to develop and validate methods for detecting, identifying, and quantifying plant and animal products derived from NGTs. Through these efforts, DETECTIVE seeks to facilitate the traceability and authentication of NGT products, enhancing market control, ensuring legal enforcement reliability, and supporting consumer choice within the EU.
The specific objectives of DETECTIVE are to:
- Create a common understanding of the traceability, authenticity and transparency needs regarding NGT products by stakeholder type through the systems mapping approach (SMA) and the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI RoadmapTM);
- Develop analytical techniques capable of detecting, identifying and quantifying known and unknown mutations, off-target mutations, and cisgenic events and validate these methods in accredited laboratories;
- Develop a data space as a cluster of databases covering a multitude of gene-edited and cisgenic organisms, gene sequences, natural and breeding-related variability (breeders’ gene pool);
- Analyse the socio-economic and regulatory implications of various technical and non-technical strategies for detection, traceability and authenticity of NGT plant and animal products;
- Empower enforcement authorities, certified laboratories, private laboratories, developers and agrifood operators through a co-created empowerment plan with train-the-trainers and capacity-building programme by applying the RRI RoadmapTM; and
- Establish a community of practice (CoP) to facilitate knowledge sharing among laboratories across.
