Bioengineering Studies ISSN 2744-1636 Vol. 1, No. 1, December 2020, pp.14-20 Original Research https://doi.org/10.37868/bes.v1i1.id112 14 Determination of GMO Soy Products in Processed Food from Bosnian and Herzegovinian Market Amar Čosic 1 , Ajdina Karić 2 , Kanita Šabanović 3 , Ahmet Yildirim 4 , Jasmin Šutković 5* 1,2,3,4,5 Genetics and Bioengineering, International University of Sarajevo *Corresponding author: jsutkovic@ius.edu.ba © The Author 2020. Published by ARDA. Abstract The Bosnian and Herzegovinian market lacks data about the percentage of genetically modified soy products placed on the domestic market. There has been research on the issue of the presence of GMO products in our domestic market, but neither of the results is used as a reference for this occurrence. Therefore, this research topic tends to contribute to this issue, by examining genetically modified soy in processed food. The sample of seven products containing soya is examined by the methods of DNA isolation and real-time PCR for CP4 EPSPS. The results showed positive results for the presence of CP4 gene in certain products without an appropriate label. This mislabeling was confirmed since a couple of samples were labeled as GMO-free but contained CP4 gene, indicating GMO product. Keywords: GMO; soybean; food; lectin; CP4 gene 1. Introduction 1.1. GMO and GMO legislation The usage of genetically modified organism (GMO) in recent years has increased drastically over few years. Definition of GMO’s tend to vary between scientist, but according to NCBI MeSH, GMO are: “Organisms whose genome has been changed by a genetic engineering technique” [1]. Many food products found on today's markets are being sold as GMOs or are containing ingredients derived from GMO foods [2]. Over the years, European Union (EU) has imposed strict regulations on production and distribution of GMO foods. The legal framework seeks to protect human and animal health with high safety standards, provide efficient procedures to assess the risk of GMOs, ensure effective labelling of GMOs to help consumers make an informed decision, and finally, to provide traceability of market GMOs. EU rulebook says that a product which contain more than 0.9% of genetic modification requires special labelling procedure for GMO [3]. According to the agency for food safety in Bosnia and Hercegovina the GMO food has the same ruleset which was fixed by EU legislation [4]. 1.2. Soybean Soybean is plant that holds the biggest ratio of planted GMO’s worldwide. 82% of the total Soybean is genetically modified [5]. It is grown everywhere and used as an important component of food formulations. Soya as a food is highly nutrient, and a great source of proteins, so wide amount of people can intake it. The uses of soy protein for example span from emulsification to provision of essential dietary amino acids [6]. 1.3. Roundup Ready TM From GM crop species, soybean (Glycine max L.) is a major part of it, as soybean account for about 50% of the total planted areas with GMO. In 1996, the first crop to be approved to produce food was soybean – Roundup Ready (RR TM ), that was made by Monsanto. It is tolerant to Roundup herbicide [7]. The broad-spectrum herbicide glyphosate, which it the active ingredient of Roundup herbicide, is inhibiting 5- enolpyruvylshikimate-3- phosphate (EPSP) synthase, which is an enzyme that catalyzes the penultimate step of the shikimate pathway, to the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids.