Australians to tap into crop testing in Europe

A company has been established in Adelaide to develop scientific techniques for genetic crop testing in Europe.

Lifeprint Australia is an offshoot of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) and German company Lifeprint GmbH. The new company will be based at the ACPFG headquarters, at the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide.

The German Lifeprint company specialises in food DNA testing, particularly for genetic modification (GM) or potential allergens. Lifeprint Australia will develop new scientific testing techniques for Lifeprint in Germany, allowing both companies to capture the growing food testing market.

There is a strong European market for GM testing in food crops, where GM is poorly accepted by consumers. Despite this, more than 8 million farmers grow genetically modified crops in 21 countries, including Australia. Food labelling laws in countries like Australia and Germany mean food producers need to be able to trace GM. Lifeprint Australia has been established to help satisfy that need.

Professor Peter Langridge, a director of Lifeprint Australia and CEO of the ACPFG, said he hopes better genetic testing technologies will increase consumer confidence in GM foods.

"The reality is that GM is a part of agriculture today. At the ACPFG we use these technologies in research and accept the associated responsibilities. It is important to give consumers as much information as possible and I hope that Lifeprint Australia will be able to help increase awareness and understanding of gene technologies," said Professor Langridge.

Lifeprint was established in Germany by Dr Sibylle Roesel and Dr Waltraud Böhm in 2001 and is based in Illertissen, near Ulm.

The ACPFG was created in 2002 with funds from the Grains Research Development Corporation, Australian Research Council and the South Australian Government.