ISO 21570:2005 provides the overall framework of quantitative methods for the detection of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in foodstuffs, using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

It defines general requirements for the specific amplification of DNA target sequences in order to quantify the relative GMO-derived DNA content and to confirm the identity of the amplified DNA sequence.

Guidelines, minimum requirements and performance criteria laid down in ISO 21570:2005 are intended to ensure that comparable, accurate and reproducible results are obtained in different laboratories.

ISO 21570:2005 has been established for food matrices, but is also applicable to other matrices, e.g. feed and plant samples from the environment.