Taco shell recall focuses on safety of biotech foods 

Caution urged until impact of such products can be studied

Max Showalter / Journal and Courier 9oct00

ORGANIC FARMING ADVOCATE: organic farming advocate: Steve Bonney, founder and president of Sustainable Earth, Inc., in his office at his West Lafayette home. Sustainable Earth is a nonprofit organization that advocates organic and sustainable farming. (By Michael Heinz, Journal and Courier)

On a scale of 1 to 10, if you assume the Bridgestone/Firestone tire recall is a 10, then the recent taco shell recall by Kraft Foods Inc. falls somewhere short of double digits.

Exactly where depends on who's doing the evaluation.

"Anytime there's a recall, we consider it serious because there's a safety question," said Sonya Sanders, marketing area communications and consumer affairs manager for Kroger, which owns and operates the four Pay Less Super Markets in Greater Lafayette.

"I think the message is one of caution. We're not really sure what all the ramifications of genetic engineering are," said Steve Bonney of West Lafayette, founder and president of Sustainable Earth Inc., a nonprofit group that advocates organic and sustainable farming.

"We're too smart, too clever for our own good in terms of science. The technology has gotten ahead of our wisdom."

Kraft initiated the recall after tests showed that some of its taco shells were made with a genetically engineered corn that has not been approved for human consumption.

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies try to sort out several issues connected to genetically engineered corn, two Purdue University researchers are completing work on a statistical program that analyzes the purity of grain as it moves through the food system.

The recall covers only Taco Bell Home Originals products that contain taco shells and are sold in supermarkets.

"All other Taco Bell Home Originals products are unaffected and are not part of the recall," Kraft Foods said in a statement. "We estimate that approximately 2.5 million to 2.9 million boxes of product containing taco shells are affected by the recall. Kraft's recall does not include any products sold in Taco Bell restaurants."

While implementing the recall, Kraft also is seeking a new supply of corn that meets all regulatory requirements and plans to resume production of the affected line of products as soon as possible.

Testing grain, gathering data

Aventis CropScience, maker of some of the modified corn used in the recalled products, has stopped selling the grain until the federal Environmental Protection Agency approves its use in food.

"We just think that until we can get all this resolved, the fairest thing for food companies and the consuming public is to stop sales," Aventis spokesman Rick Rountree said.

And in a move that could cost $100 million, the company also has agreed to pay the cost of buying and shipping all of this year's crop of the biotech corn known as StarLink to ensure none of it gets into the food supply.

Richard Vierling, an adjunct professor of agronomy at Purdue and director of the Indiana Crop Improvement Genetics Laboratory, has joined Bruce Craig from the university's Statistics Department in creating a statistical program that will analyze the purity of grain as it moves through the food system.

The program, presented during a recent international meeting and targeted for CD-ROM distribution in December, will test grain from the field to the laboratory and make problem detection easier. Better cooperation from biotech companies also would be beneficial.

"It's one of those things that are after the fact. After it's out we're not going to be that helpful," Vierling said. "We have some technology we'd like to implement that would make it easier to detect. We have a statistical package that lets people combine different types of data -- field data and laboratory data, and make estimates about genetic purity.

"If there is any grain that has an attribute you want segregated, this statistical program will help you look at it from beginning to end."

Reaping modified crops

All of the soybeans and some of the corn being harvested this fall at Kemper Farms south of Lafayette are genetically enhanced.

Farm owner Alan Kemper views the recent Kraft Foods recall as a validation of testing conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"As a farmer, I want to make sure everyone has safe food," Kemper said. "Regulations that monitor all types of food safety, including genetically enhanced, are needed. So this is actually telling me that the system works. Two-thirds of the products in grocery stores are still genetically enhanced.

"There are a lot of markets out there for genetically enhanced products, not only here in the U.S. but around the world."

In response to a possible erosion of the U.S. corn export market in Japan caused by the Aventis recall, the U.S. Grains Council and the National Corn Growers Association sent a team to the Asian country last week.

StarLink is the only commercially produced variety of U.S. corn that is not yet approved in Japan, which imports more than 600 million bushels of American corn annually.

"A tough, new law goes into effect in Japan on April 1, 2000, that sets a zero tolerance for the import of unapproved agricultural products," USCG president and CEO Ken Hobbie said. "Under the new law, importers can face severe fines and prison terms for importing unapproved varieties of corn into Japan.

"The StarLink taco shell incident sent a shock through the Japanese corn import industry and raised concern about U.S. ability to comply with the new law. The Japanese received us warmly because our presence demonstrated a swift and aggressive response to their concerns.

"We didn't have all of the answers, but we provided enough information and specifics on how we are responding to the problem to help restore confidence in our ability to meet the pending market realities."

And while a global marketplace can be good news for farmers, Bonney is taking a cautionary stance toward the future of genetically engineered crops.

"I feel a lot of positiveness coming out of this whole issue. I don't think there will be other consequences from this event," the researcher said. "Now is the time to pause and decide where we want to go with this. We're looking at technology for technology's sake. We're not really sure where we're going with this or where we want to go."