PHILIP BRASHER / AP 13nov00
WASHINGTON -- The chance of consumers eating an unapproved variety of biotech corn is ``extremely low,'' but unresolved questions remain about its potential to cause allergic reactions, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.
The crop's developer, Aventis CropScience, has asked EPA for temporary approval of the genetically engineered corn for food use to avoid snarling the grain and food industries. The corn, known as StarLink, has been found in taco shells made by three food processors.
In a preliminary assessment of the Aventis request, EPA said so little of the corn has intruded in the food supply that the risk of encountering it ranges from ``parts per billion to parts per trillion'' of food consumed by people most likely to eat it.
EPA estimated that 0.14 percent of the corn harvested this year and sold for use in food probably contains StarLink corn. Federal officials have been unable to locate about 1.5 percent of this year's StarLink corn, or about 1.2 million bushels.
EPA never approved the corn for human consumption because of the questions about its allergenicity, and the agency said in the report that it remains unsure despite new studies submitted by Aventis.
The EPA has scheduled a public meeting on the Aventis request Nov. 28 and expects to have a recommendation from a panel of scientific advisers by Dec. 1.
Aventis says there is ``no potential'' for the corn to affect people who currently suffer from food allergies, and there is too little of it in the food supply for people to develop sensitivity to it.
Groups critical of biotech food say the EPA has given them too little time to study the Aventis request and comment on it before the Nov. 28 meeting. ``What we're seeing is an attempt to rush the scientific process,'' said Richard Caplan of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
Meanwhile, South Korea and a U.S. food processor are disputing whether tortillas were shipped to the Asian country that may contain StarLink.
Mission Foods Inc. of Irving, Texas, recalled 300 corn products in the United States last month that may have contained the corn. Tortillas ordered recalled in South Korea late last week were on that list, K.T. Moon, health and welfare counselor for the Korean embassy, said Monday.
South Korea has recalled 32,000 pounds of tortillas out of 75,000 pounds exported to South Korea, Moon said. Most of the product has already been consumed, he said.
Mission Foods spokesman Peter Pitts said the company sells only wheat products to South Korea, not corn.
South Korean officials ``haven't done any testing of their own. There may have been some confusion,'' said Pitts. ``The products are safe and do not need to be recalled.''
He said the company was notifying Korean officials that the recall was unnecessary.
Agriculture Department officials, who have been working with South Korea and other Asian countries to quell their worries about StarLink, said corn tortillas may have been exported to Korea through a third party. Pitts said that is possible but unlikely.
The USDA, meanwhile, has been trying to assure South Korea that StarLink corn is being identified and kept out of exports to the country.
``We've been providing them with lots of information over the last several days,'' said Tim Galvin, administrator of USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service.
Earlier this month, the United States and Japan agreed on testing procedures to ensure that corn being shipped to Japan to be used in food contains no StarLink.
- EPA report: http://www.epa.gov/scipoly/sap/whatsnew.htm
- Foreign Agricultural Service: http://www.fas.usda.gov
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