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Serious Doubts About GM Food Safety
18 September 2000
Serious doubts about the safety of GM food have been raised in the US after a GM ingredient, not allowed in human food because of fears that it may trigger allergies, was discovered in taco shells, following laboratory analysis for Friends of the Earth US. Today'sWashington Post reports that the US Food and Drug Administration has called the presence of StarLink in human food “unlawful” and launched an investigation.
Friends of the Earth today wrote to Sir John Krebs, head of the UK's Food Standard Agency, asking what tests are being carried out on GM imports to ensure that UK consumers are not eating GM food unfit for human consumption.
Significant levels of a type of GM corn called StarLink was discovered in Taco Bell taco shells during lab tests in the US. StarLink, manufactured by biotech giant Aventis, has Federal approval to be grown as animal feed but cannot be used in human food because it “exhibits some characteristics of known allergens”.
Next month the national seed list hearings into a UK Government proposal to give the first commercial approval to a GM seed. Hundreds of people have lodged objections, and,following the discovery of a little-known law by FOE, many of these will now have to be listened to at official hearings which are scheduled to last10 weeks.
Tony Juniper, Policy and Campaigns Director at Friends of the Earth said:
“This GM contamination is extremely serious and could pose a significant threat to human health. The Food Standards Agency must spell out what monitoring it is doing to ensure that this contaminated GM material won't end up on our plates.
“Earlier this year it was revealed that British farmers had inadvertently planted GM-contaminated seed across the UK; now we find that GM material that shouldn't be eaten by humans has turned up in food. If the biotech industry cannot control its products then they should stop messing about with our food.”
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jul 2008
