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Rule shift could aid StarLink
EPA weighs allowing human food to contain
traces of biotech corn; the
policy now calls for zero tolerance.
By GEORGE ANTHAN
Des Moines Register Washington Bureau
04/25/2001
Washington, D.C. - The Bush administration could seek to defuse the
StarLink controversy by allowing tiny traces of the controversial biotech
corn to exist in human food, two industry officials said Tuesday.
The industry experts suggest a change in the Environmental Protection
Agency's zero-tolerance policy on StarLink in human food after the agency
received new information about health risks associated with StarLink.
That information came from Aventis CropScience, which produced StarLink.
The corn was originally approved only for animal feed and/or industrial
uses. StarLink began showing up in food products last year, causing major
disruptions in the grain industry because of fears that the corn could
trigger allergic reactions in a small percentage of humans.
The EPA said new information submitted by Aventis indicates that human
food products may be contaminated with StarLink "for the foreseeable
future" but suggests that the level of contamination is so low it
poses no health risk.
Aventis made a similar request of the EPA to allow trace amounts of StarLink
in human food late last year, but the request was turned down by the EPA,
which at that time was under the leadership of Democrat Carol Browner.
The agency now is led by Republican Christie Whitman, who was appointed
by
Bush.
"I would not be surprised to see some more flexibility on this issue"
from
the Bush administration, said Don Roose, a market analyst with U.S. Commodities
Inc. in West Des Moines.
Susan Keith, an official here with the National Corn Growers Association,
called the EPA's announcement of the Aventis request "very positive."
The government's zero tolerance for StarLink has resulted in hundreds
of food product recalls after traces of StarLink's unique Cry9C protein
were found in taco shells, corn chips and other products.
As long as the EPA has a zero tolerance for StarLink in human food "major
disruptions of the food supply will continue even though the theoretical
risk is vanishingly small," Aventis told the EPA in a filing.
The EPA said Aventis' "new information is likely to be an important
addition to the growing body of scientific data."
The agency said that Aventis' new data seem to confirm the EPA's belief
that processing of corn into oil, syrup, alcohol and starch through a
wet-milling process effectively eliminates the StarLink protein from finished
foods. Earlier tests involving dry-milling to produce flour were
not as effective in eliminating the Cry9C protein, the EPA said.
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