is any colder, it takes longer. Scum collects at the top, and an odor is given off the same as in pond retting. 'Enzymatic' retting of flax has been researched as a technique to engineer fibers with specific properties. Dressing the flax Dressing the flax is the process of removing the straw from the fibers. Dressing consists of three steps: breaking, scutching, and heckling. The breaking breaks up the straw. Some of the straw is scraped from the fibers in the scutching process, and finally, the fiber is pulled through heckles to remove the last bits of straw. Breaking breaks up the straw into short segments. Scutching removes some of the straw from the fiber. Heckling is pulling the fiber through various sizes of heckling combs or heckles. A heckle is a bed of "nails"—sharp, long-tapered, tempered, polished steel pins driven into wooden blocks at regular spacing. Genetically modified flax contamination In September 2009, Canadian flax exports reportedly had been contaminated by a deregistered genetically modified cultivar called 'Triffid' that had food and feed safety approval in Canada and the U.S. Canadian growers and the Flax Council of Canada raised concerns about the marketability of this cultivar in Europe where a zero tolerance policy exists regarding unapproved genetically modified organisms. Consequently, Triffid was deregistered in 2010 and never grown commercially in Canada or the U.S. Triffid stores were destroyed, but future exports and further tests at the University of Saskatchewan proved that Triffid persisted in at least two Canadian flax varieties, possibly affecting future crops. Canadian flax seed cultivars were reconstituted with Triffid-free seed used to plant the 2014 crop. Laboratories are certified to test for the presence of Triffid at a level of one seed in 10,000. Symbolic images Flax is an emblem of Northern Ireland and displayed by the Northern Ireland Assembly. In a coronet, it appeared on the reverse of the British one-pound coin to represent Northern Ireland on coins minted in 1986, 1991, and 2014. Flax also represents Northern Ireland on the badge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and on various logos associated with it. Common flax is the national flower of Belarus. In early versions of the Sleeping Beauty tale, such as "Sun, Moon, and Talia" by Giambattista Basile, the princess pricks her finger, not on a spindle, but on a sliver of flax, which later is sucked out by her children