Canada says banned GM corn mistakenly fed to animals

Reuters 16mar01

OTTAWA  - Canada's agriculture minister, already under pressure from protesting cash-strapped farmers and worried about foot-and-mouth disease spreading from Europe, admitted Friday that genetically modified corn containing the Starlink gene -- not approved for use in Canada -- was accidentally fed to animals.

"Some of it did get into the animal feed system," Lyle Vanclief told the House of Commons in response to questions from opposition members about how two shipments of the corn entered Canada from the United States this week.

Vanclief's admission was a reversal of previous statements that one shipment was removed immediately and the second was traced and withdrawn.

The minister, who said there was a "slim chance" the corn had entered the human food chain, has provided few details about the quantity of corn, or how or where it entered Canada. But an opposition member said the corn entered Canada at the port of Montreal.

Food giant Kellogg Co.'s Worthington Foods Inc. this week voluntarily recalled its meat-free corn dogs in the United States after a sample was shown to contain Starlink corn.

The corn, engineered by biotech firm Aventis SA , is not approved for human consumption in the United States because of concern it may trigger allergic reactions. It is allowed in U.S. animal feed.

In the same week that Ottawa banned all meat imports from Europe to prevent the scourge of foot-and-mouth disease from entering the country, Vanclief had to face angry farmers demanding more government aid to offset low commodity prices and a program to compete with massive farm subsidies in the United States and Europe.