Consumer concerns over the presence of genetically modified material in bulk commodities and processed food product has spawned a growth industry for labs that can test for the presence of GMOs.
Tajinder Grewal, chief scientist at SGS Canada Inc., says demand for GMO testing services at his new Saskatoon-based lab have been increasing steadily since the facility opened last year.
He said the lab is the only testing facility in Canada that has the ability to test for GMOs in all the major crop types, including canola, wheat, soybeans, corn and flax.
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“We’re doing very well but we are only starting,” said Grewal, who sees huge growth potential for the lab.
“All the big companies — Viterra, Richardson, Cargill and so on — all of these trading companies use our services. They are our biggest clients.
“But there are many smaller companies as well — there are regular producers, and now we are also going into the food and feed industries.
“Companies in the food and feed industries are looking for non-GMO labels, and lots of them are exporting products to different countries … so we’re getting lots of samples from these companies that want to make sure there’s no GMO there.”
SGS is a testing, inspection, verification and certification company that operates in 140 countries and employs roughly 95,000 people around the world.
Grewal joined the company’s Canadian workforce in 2016 and was tasked with setting up a new GMO-testing service in Saskatoon.
Grewal led SGS’s efforts to gain ISO certification for GMO testing and he began offering services in July 2017 out of a two-room lab facility.
Since then, demand for the lab’s services has grown, prompting SGS to open a new lab with more space and expanded capacity.
The expanded lab, which has been operational since late 2019, was supposed to host a grand opening earlier this year but those plans were sidelined due to COVID-19, said Grewal.
Instead, the lab will hold a virtual grand opening event, where clients can learn more about the facility and the testing services currently being offered.
According to Grewal, the lab is capable of testing for any GMO in all major crop kinds. GMOs that are not currently listed on the lab’s service list can be added to meet a client’s specific and unique needs.
He said the lab is only scratching the surface in what is already a huge and rapidly expanding North American market for GMO detection services.
A significant number of Canadian companies that require GMO-free certification are currently sending samples south of the border to U.S. labs.
In addition to longer turn-around times, Canadian clients that send samples to American labs are also paying more, partly because of unfavourable exchange rates, Grewal said.
“We are the only lab in Canada doing all kinds of GMO testing and we’re the first and only lab approved by the Non-GMO Project,” Grewal said.
“We’re based right here in Saskatoon, but a lot of people still don’t know about us.”
Stanley Chukwukelu, quality control manager with Virtex Foods in Saskatoon, has been sending canola samples to the SGS lab since April.
Virtex processes non-GMO canola and sells specialty canola oil products that are shipped across Canada and the United States. It also sells non-GMO canola meal into specialty feed markets.
To ensure the products it sells are GMO-free, Virtex tests all of its canola before it arrives at the crushing plant in Saskatoon’s north industrial area.
Until recently, the company had been shipping samples to the United States.
The ability now to send samples to a Canadian lab, just 15 minutes away, has greatly reduced turn-around times and has allowed the company to make processing decisions more quickly and more efficiently.
In some cases, results from the SGS lab have been returned the same day.
“Before April, we had to ship our samples to the United States.… We have been doing that since 2014,” Chukwukelu said.
“The fact that we now have a lab at our doorstep … makes things much easier.”
Chukwukelu said demand for Virtex’s processed oil products has been increasing steadily. Many consumers are paying greater attention to the food they eat, he added.
To take advantage of that market, Virtex has to “make sure, all along the supply chain, that we are monitoring and testing for GMOs,” he said.
