EU Due to Tighten Import Rules to Keep Out GMO Rice
Date: 03-Oct-06
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Jeremy Smith
In August, the European Commission tightened rules governing imports of US long-grain rice to prove the absence of the LL Rice 601 strain, which it said was marketed by Germany's Bayer AG and produced in the United States.
Its decision followed the discovery by US authorities of trace amounts of the GMO rice, engineered to resist a herbicide, in long-grain samples that were targeted for commercial use.
Since then, samples of the LL Rice 601 strain have appeared in at least nine EU countries after random testing by national authorities in each food and retail supply chain, according to notices posted on the Commission's food safety alert system.
"We are going to reinforce the measures that we already have on testing," one Commission official told reporters.
"We don't have a date yet, it (revised requirements) would probably be discussed by the Commission and then go to a standing committee (of food safety experts)," he said.
That decision is widely expected sometime next week.
Industry sources said the Commission was likely to recommend mandatory testing of US long-grain rice cargoes at the point of entry into the 25-country European Union. In practice, most of these cargoes enter the bloc via the Dutch port of Rotterdam.
MORE COUNTRIES REPORT GMO STRAIN
The need for tighter EU import rules arose earlier this month when two bargeloads within a 20,000-tonne US rice cargo held in Rotterdam tested positive for the GMO strain after first having tested negative.
Another US rice cargo of a similar volume -- around that of one month's average EU imports -- is due to arrive in Europe in mid-October, also probably in Rotterdam, officials say.
No biotech rice is allowed to be grown, sold or marketed on the territory of the European Union's 25 countries.
"Member states are now reporting test results, including positives, from their controls in the market. There are a number of alerts coming," the official said.
"We expect member states to do a certain amount of random tests ... at the moment, we would expect it (long-grain rice) to be certified before it leaves the United States," he added.
The latest countries to report the presence of LL Rice 601 are Ireland, Austria and Slovenia, according to Commission data.
In their alert notices, all three countries said the rice had entered national territory via one or even two other EU countries -- like Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.
Bayer says it does not sell or produce LL Rice 601 and the strain was developed by Aventis CropScience, a company bought by Bayer in 2002. That development ended in 2001, the company says.
