Oakland, CA — Cotton marketed as organic, but containing traces of genetically modified material, was sold on a large-scale out of India last year, reported Financial Times Deutschland.

According to the paper, authorities in India found that some cotton being certified as organic actually contained genetically modified cotton around April 2009, which should have prevented the material from being called organic.

EcoCert and Control Union, the third party organizations that certified the cotton, were fined, but the action was not reported at the time.

Specific retailers like H&M, C&A and Tchibo were called out as possible carriers of contaminated organic cotton since they make purchases certified by the two organizations.

The paper said that H&M admitted it knew about the investigation into the genetically modified cotton last year and did not rule out the possibility that items in the company's organic collection might have contained the contaminated cotton.

On its website, though, H&M says, "There is no reason to believe that the organic cotton used for H&M's garments was grown using genetically modified seeds. However, H&M was aware that last year the Indian authority APEDA criticized Control Union for insufficient checks of farmers' control systems for seeds and sowing. As a consequence of the criticism, Control Union conducted unannounced audits of all organic cotton farms that they certify in India. None of the farms were found to use GM seeds, and all farms took the appropriate steps to ensure that GM seeds were not used."

A director of Impetus, an independent testing lab in Germany, told Financial Times Deutschland that about 30 percent of the cotton samples that they test contain genetically modified cotton. The lab tests samples submitted by small and medium-sized textile manufacturers.

_{Cotton - http://www.flickr.com/photos/theogeo/ / CC BY 2.0; H&M store - http://www.flickr.com/photos/reiner/ / CC BY 2.0}