Archived press release

EU to act over GM-contaminated US rice

22 August 2006

Today's announcement that the EU plans to prevent US rice contaminated with an unauthorised genetically modified strain from entering Europe's food chain has been welcomed by Friends of the Earth. But the environmental campaign group said that the Commission must move more quickly and immediately suspend US rice imports. The Commission said that it hopes to adopt measures tomorrow (Wednesday) [1].

Friends of the Earth's GM campaigner Liz Wright said:

"This food has been contaminated with GM rice that has not been properly tested and has not been authorised for human consumption. While we are pleased that the EU is planning to take action to prevent it entering our food chain, it must move faster. The European Commission should immediately suspend US rice imports and ensure that contaminated products are removed from the shelves.

"This disturbing incident is yet another warning on the dangers of GM crops, and shows that consumer opposition to this technology is completely justified. There must be a full investigation to find out how this contamination has happened, and how to ensure that it never happen again."

Friends of the Earth is calling on the Commission to prevent the unapproved rice entering the food chain and ensure that any contaminated products are removed from shelves.

The environmental campaign group is also calling on the Commission to set out its response to the incident and what steps are being taken, specifically:

• When was the European Commission officially notified of the contamination by the US authorities?

• Does the European Commission have the relevant reference materials to allow detection of LL601 rice in foodstuffs?

• Has a programme of testing been started of rice imports? They must make full details of the Commission's plans for testing publicly available.

• Does the European Commission have any further information regarding the extent, location(s) and level of contamination of US rice, and when it occurred?

• Has there been any assessment made of the safety of LL601 rice by the EFSA? Have the safety assessments from Bayer or the US authorities been made available to the European Commission? Any safety data must be made publicly available.

Notes

[1] Reuters:http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx? ¬
view=CN&storyID=2006-08-22T102146Z_01_L22121916 ¬
_RTRIDST_0_FOOD-EU-USA-RICE-UPDATE-1.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust