PHILIP BRASHER / AP 13nov00
WASHINGTON -- South Korea and a U.S. food processor are disputing whether tortillas were shipped to the Asian country that may contain an unapproved variety of biotech corn.
Mission Foods 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.
StarLink corn was not approved for human consumption because of the unresolved possibility that it has potential to cause allergic reactions.
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.
Mission Foods is among three U.S. food processors that have recalled taco shells and other products after tests identified them as possibly containing the corn.
The corn's developer, Aventis CropScience, has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to approve the grain temporarily for food use in the United States to avoid further recalls of corn products or shutdowns of processors. Federal officials say that there is little, if any, health risk from the corn.
- Foreign Agricultural Service: http://www.fas.usda.gov
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