Gene-altered corn holding up Cheeto supplies, Frito-Lay says

Katie Fairbank

The nation is suffering a Cheetos crunch.

And science is to blame.

Frito-Lay Inc. says it can't make enough of the cheese-flavored snacks because it's being so careful to keep genetically engineered corn out of its recipes. The Plano, Texas-based company is running thousands of tests every month to protect the nation's Cheetos.

Cheetos supplies are down from 2 percent to 10 percent _ the shortage varies by region _ while the company waits for corn that doesn't have its roots in a test tube. Funyuns _ onion-flavored rings _ also are in short supply.

"We've required all cornmeal to meet all tests, and that's slowed things down," Frito-Lay spokeswoman Lynn Markley said. "As soon as we get shipments in, we make them."

The company expects to fix the supply problem in the next couple of weeks, she added.

In the meantime, you won't notice any gaps on the grocery store shelves where the Cheetos should be.

The demand for shelf space, especially among snack foods, is fierce. So if there are fewer Cheetos bags in stock, it just means that there's more room for Fritos, Tostitos and Doritos.

Searches this week of selected Tom Thumb, Albertson's and Sam's Club stores turned up no Cheetos.

There are no problems with Frito-Lay's other chips because they're made with specified varieties of corn that are followed from seed to store through Frito Lay's contracts with farmers.

But the cornmeal that goes into Chee-tos is bought on the open market, and the federal government requires it to be tested for any trace of StarLink bio-engineered corn.

StarLink contains a protein that acts as a pesticide and was supposed to be used only in animal feed or for industrial purposes. The corn has not been approved for human consumption.

Humans have difficulty digesting the insecticide in StarLink, and doctors suspect that some people will suffer allergic reactions if they eat it.

In September, the corn was discovered in taco shells and tortilla chips made by Kraft Foods, and the products were immediately pulled from the shelves. Within a month, Irving, Texas-based Mission Foods, the country's largest manufacturer of tortilla products, recalled 300 different products sold through national supermarket chains, including Safeway, Food Lion, Kroger, IGA and Albertson's.

French pharmaceutical company Aventis SA, which developed StarLink, suspended sales of the corn seed at the end of September. Federal officials say they are concerned that some of this year's crop may still get into the food supply because they have been unable to trace about 1.2 million bushels, 1.5 percent of the total StarLink harvest.

So the testing goes on.

Markley said that Frito-Lay would continue with its rigorous analysis, despite the delays.

"We are confident that all of our cornmeal is problem-free," she said.