“…The potatoes were subjected to high temperatures (150 to 175 °C) for short times (minutes), conditions that are commonly used in drying and frying processes. Until now, DNA degradation during food production was either monitored in processes run at temperatures up to 121 °C (Bauer et al, 2003;Gryson et al, 2002;Hupfer et al, 1998Hupfer et al, , 1999Klein et al, 1998) or detected upon investigation of final products for reasons of traceability and labelling of GM food according to the European legislation (European Commission, 1997, 2000. For example, Klein et al (1998) showed a reduction of plasmid DNA in the course of sugar production by three orders of magnitude during heat treatment at 121 °C for 30 min.…”