Archived press release

Urgent action needed on potentially hazardous illegal GM rice contamination

8 March 2008

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) today advised stakeholders that illegal GM rice from China is currently in the UK food chain. Friends of the Earth and GM Freeze have urged the FSA to act immediately to ensure that contaminated products are cleared from shelves and prevented from entering the market, instead of waiting a month until the official date to implement measures. [1]

The rice variety Bt63 was developed at the Huazhong Agricultural University in China and has not been approved anywhere for commercial growing. Concerns have been expressed that the GM protein in Bt63 rice could cause allergic reactions but the European Food Safety Authority has been unable to assess its food safety risk because of lack of data on the GM crop.

Bt63 genes have been detected in foodstuffs in China and Europe since 2005. The illegal GM genes have been found in a number of specialty rice products in the UK, France, Germany and Sweden such as rice sticks and noodles In 2007, the UK imported nearly 1000 tonnes of these rice based pasta products from China.

Efforts by the EU to persuade Chinese authorities to clean up the contamination have not been successful and on 12^th February the EU agreed Emergency Measures to stop Bt63 entering the EU and to clear shelves of existing contaminated stocks. This was communicated to stakeholders today, but the EU has decided that the measure should not come into force until 15^th April.

Commenting Pete Riley of GM Freeze said

"It is not at all clear why the EU have decided to delay implementing the Emergency Measures on Bt63 rice for two months. The lack of safety data should have meant swift action. We urge industry, local authorities and the FSA to work as quickly as possible to clean up the foods chain in the UK and to ensure that only products accompanied by an analytical certificate showing no presence are allowed through our ports".

Kirtana Chandrasekaran of Friends of the Earth said:

"This is another example where GM has been released into the food chain before full safety assessments have been carried out. And once again, the complete lack of any liability regulation means that businesses will be hit hard. The UK Government needs to wake up to the massive economic and social costs of not implementing GM liability laws. It is vital that the UK government takes the lead in ensuring that companies, especially small and medium sized business are fully compensated by the Chinese authorities for their losses and costs incurred in dealing with this GM contamination".

[1] See GM Freeze/Friends of the Earth briefing at www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/GM_Rice_Contamination.pdf (PDF€ )

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust