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Dept of Health

Answer

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much his Department spent on (a) polymerase chain reaction and (b) other DNA- identification tests in each of the last 10 years; [116853] (2) what steps the Food Standards Agency is taking to improve the polymerase chain reaction testing regime. [116854] Ms Blears: The Department did not fund development of any such tests until the Food Standards Agency (FSA) was established in April 2000. Since then an estimated total of £1.5 million has been spent on methods using DMA techniques to identify the presence of specific ingredients in foodstuffs. A breakdown of the amount spent per year is shown in the table. The projects have been looking at use of DNA methods to check the labelling of a wide range of foods, especially meat and fish products. All but one of these methods use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based techniques. The FSA is currently funding ten research projects aimed at improving PCR methodology for use in authenticity surveys and enforcement of labelling legislation. These tests are aimed at developing methods for identifying ingredients of a wide range of products, including vegetarian foods, and identifying varieties, for example of potatoes and rice. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Completed in Year Range of foodstuffs included No. of projects Total cost (£s) 2000 Food mixtures, meat. 3 75,021 2001 Meat, wine, seafood, fish, 6 423,098 olive oil, chicken. 2002 Potatoes, rice, meat, olive and 5 343,549 hazelnut oil. 2003 White fish, jams and yoghurts, 10 725,286 (estimated) vegetarian foods, meat, rice, potato, chicken breasts. _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

406 c842W;406 c843-4W; 116853;116854

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Costs Additives Finance Genetics Food Food Standards Agency Standards Research Testing

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk