National Starch gain certification for Truetrace

31/03/05 National Starch Food Innovation has earned certification for its TRUETRACE non-GM crop identity-preservation program in the United States from SGS, a world leader in inspection, verification, testing, and certification.

National's two U.S. corn starch manufacturing facilities – in Indianapolis, Ind., and Kansas City, Mo. -- both received certification in February. The certification, which applies to all of National's food starch products, as well as the feed and meal the company sells, ensures that the company's supply chain is non-GM and that its products meet or exceed rigorous non-GM quality standards, including labeling requirements in Europe for the adventitious presence of GM materials.

TRUETRACE provides customers with traceability for National's food ingredients at all stages of their development, from seed to crop, to production and distribution. The program covers all the company's food ingredients made from corn grown in the United States and is designed for compliance with the British Retail Consortium/Food and Drinks Federation Technical Standard for the Supply of Non-Genetically Modified Food Ingredients and Products, a globally recognized standard for a non-GMO supply chain.

The non-GMO Supply Chain certification by SGS included a detailed audit of National's TRUETRACE program; inspection of documentation from National's growers and third-party suppliers; inspection of plant facilities, test procedures and results; review of standard operating procedures, personnel training records; and review of criteria for rejecting corn supplies, recall and other procedures.
Protecting corn varieties from adventitious contamination and providing traceability is becoming more important because farmers in the corn belt of the United States have been greatly increasing their acreage of GM corn crops over the last few years. Currently, between one third and one half of the corn acreage in the corn-belt states is being used to grow GM corn, and that is projected to increase considerably over the next few years.