EPA: Altered animal feed must pass human standard

Anthony Shadid / Boston Globe 8mar01

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency will no longer approve genetically engineered food for use as animal feed unless it's safe for human consumption, too.

Yesterday, EPA officials acknowledged that approving products only for animals was a mistake. It was the latest repercussion from last year's recall of taco shells, corn chips, and other food products that contain StarLink corn.

StarLink, a genetically modified seed that is made by Aventis CropScience, was approved only for industrial use and as animal feed, because of concerns that it might cause allergic reactions in humans. Even so, traces of Starlink were detected in grain shipments and food products, forcing a costly recall and raising anxieties, in the United States and abroad.

Yesterday, the agency said so-called split registrations - for animals, but not for humans - would ''no longer be considered a regulatory option.''

Both the biotechnology industry and its critics welcomed the move.

''The EPA should have never granted a split registration in the first place,'' said Richard Caplan, a Washington-based environmental advocate for the nonprofit Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group.

Caplan and others oppose the use of so-called Bt crops, which are made by splicing in a gene that produces protein made from a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. Critics argue that too little is known about their impact, although the EPA so far has found that they pose no threat to health or to the environment.

''This is an important step toward the reassurance of both the American consumer and our foreign markets of the safety of both our food supply and the safety of the many crops and foods improved through biotechnology,'' said Carl B. Feldbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Anthony Shadid can be reached by e-mail at ashadid@globe.com