Monday, January 15, 2001

News Release

A variety of biotech corn that spawned nationwide recalls of taco shells has since been found by government scientists in a corn product intended for the brewing industry, but in no other foods or ingredients.

The finding by the Food and Drug Administration was disclosed in a letter released Friday by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

FDA began testing a variety of corn products for the StarLink corn after anti-biotech groups found it last September in Taco Bell-brand taco shells distributed by Kraft Foods. The genetically engineered corn was approved only for animal feed and industrial uses.

As of Dec. 20, FDA had tested 129 of 193 product samples for StarLink and found it both in the Kraft taco shells and the brewery ingredient, according to the letter. The beer product was subsequently withdrawn from distribution by the processor before it reached brewers, according to FDA officials.

Other products that were collected for testing included tortillas, corn meal, corn chips, puffed corn snacks, corn syrup and baby food.

FDA officials have declined to discuss the testing and would not comment Friday.

StarLink never was approved for human consumption because of unresolved questions about whether a special protein it contains, known as Cry9C, can cause allergic reactions. Some StarLink was mixed in with other varieties of corn in 1999 and again last year before the government became aware of the problem.

Durbin said federal regulation of biotech products is lax and fractured between government agencies. "We need to be more careful with products that have the potential to hurt farmers and consumers," he said.

StarLink has been withdrawn from the market, but corn millers and seed companies have been asked by FDA and Agriculture Department to test for contamination in their products.

A spokesman for StarLink`s developer, Aventis CropScience, declined to comment on the letter.