EU tests for positive for illegal GM rice

The European commission has urged EU member states and the food industry to carry out tests following the discovery of unauthorised GM rice imports in Europe.

LL rice 601 – which is not approved for commercial use – was found in an EU-bound shipment of 20,000-tons of US rice held in Rotterdam, with three out of 23 barges testing positive for the GM strain.

The GM strain is marketed by German company Bayer AG and produced in the US and tests by the EU’s food industry have so far yielded 33 samples positive out of 162.

All the incriminated batches, including a brand sold by German supermarket Aldi, have been either recalled or withheld from the market. 

Meanwhile, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth said that they had also found evidence of GM rice in products imported from China.

Following the claims the European commission has asked the Chinese authorities for “further information”.

In August, the EU tightened requirements on imports of US long grain rice to prove the absence of LL 601, after the US authorities discovered trace amounts of the GM strain in rice targeted for commercial use.

The US Food and Drug Administration says LL 601 rice poses no risk to human health and does not raise any food, feed safety or environmental concerns.

But no biotech rice is currently allowed to be grown, sold or marketed in the EU’s 25 member states.

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