Biotech Critics Cite Unapproved Corn in Taco Shells
By Marc Kaufman
A form of biotech corn not allowed in food because of concerns it could trigger allergies has been detected in grocery store Taco Bell taco shells, a coalition of biotech critics will report Tuesday.
The type of corn, produced by Aventis Corp. and called StarLink, was approved by federal authorities in 1998 as an animal feed. But because the corn has been genetically modified in a way that makes it more difficult to break down in the human gut, the agencies have refused to approve it for human use.
The possibility that the modified corn made it into food products anyway has federal officials concerned, with several calling the development "very serious" if confirmed by further testing.
"If there has been a violation of our licensing process, then we would have a very great concern," said Stephen Johnson, an assistant administrator for pesticides at the Environmental Protection Agency. "Likewise, we would want to make sure we are completely protecting the public health."
Officials at the Food and Drug Administration, who called the possible presence of StarLink corn in human food "unlawful," said yesterday that the agency has already started an investigation.
If the tests are confirmed, they will surely raise the volume in the already contentious debate over biotech foods, which in recent years have become commonplace in American grocery stores. While most of the country's political, scientific and commercial establishment has embraced biotechnology as safe and useful, activists continue to raise questions about its use and hope to inspire the kind of widespread backlash now present in Europe.
The group that had the taco shells tested--the Genetically Engineered Food Alert--has asked the FDA to recall the products immediately.
"This corn is absolutely not supposed to be in our food, but an independent lab found it there anyway," said Larry Bohlen of Friends of the Earth, a member of the coalition. "This shows a major regulatory failure and raises some real human health concerns."
The group said this first finding was potentially "the tip of an iceberg," and that it could be in many other products as well. Samples of taco shells from Taco Bell restaurants will also be tested soon, group members said.
The taco shells tested were manufactured in Mexico for Taco Bell and were distributed by Kraft Foods Inc. Michael Mudd, Kraft's vice president for corporate affairs, said that the corn was bought by a Texas miller from farmers in six states, and that the miller had ordered a conventional form of corn.
"This is a serious issue and Kraft is doing everything we can to confirm whether or not this material is present in the product," Mudd said. "If it is confirmed, we will immediately take--in consultation with the FDA--all appropriate steps."
Biotech industry officials, however, also questioned the testing techniques of Genetic Id, the Iowa company that concluded the unapproved corn was in the taco shells. At least once before, the company came to conclusions about the presence of genetically modified materials that were later proven inaccurate. Officials of Genetic Id, which does substantial testing of American products being shipped to Europe, have in the past been publicly skeptical about biotechnology.
Industry officials also said that testing for the protein is "not at all simple, and it is easy to get a false positive."
Aware of the sensitivity of the issue, the company repeated the tests on the taco shells, according to Genetic Id vice president Jeffrey Smith. He said that company policy is to duplicate each test, so the taco shell sample was actually tested four times using a process called polymerase chain reaction. Each time, he said, researchers found 1 percent of the corn DNA to be from the unapproved corn, and found the presence of other biotech material as well.
"Our specialty is to help agriculture and the food industry with issues of [genetically modified organism] identification and segregation," Smith said. "This is a very controversial field, and our findings have been attacked before. But we have all the necessary documentation to show what we did and what we found." He also said that some of the sample remained.
Bohlen of Friends of the Earth said that he hoped the FDA or EPA would quickly test the shells to settle the issue. "We've been saying for a long time that federal authorities should be doing this testing, but so far it's been left to groups like us," he said.
The StarLink corn is genetically modified to contain the plant pesticide Bacillus thuringienis, or Bt, which kills the destructive European corn borer. While there are many varieties of Bt corn now, StarLink is the only one that contains the Cry9C protein. That substance, which Aventis officials say provides a useful alternative to other more commonly used Bt corn varieties, is what federal officials have concluded might cause allergies in some people.
The issue of food allergies caused by biotech products is a very sensitive one in the industry and is among the top health concerns raised about biotechnology. In an often discussed case, researchers in 1995 spliced a Brazil nut gene into soybeans in an effort to create a more nutritious soybean. But that protein turned out to be a major cause of Brazil nut allergies, and could have caused real harm to those who avoid the nut. That form of soybean never came to market because of the allergy concerns.
StarLink corn is the only biotech variety allowed for animals but not approved for human use, FDA officials said. Company officials have been trying to win federal approval for human use, but a special EPA science panel concluded in July that "there is no evidence to indicate that Cry9C is or is not a potential food allergen." There is no previous history of human dietary exposure to the Cry9C protein to guide researchers.
Aventis officials said that StarLink corn is not widely used now, and that farmers who grow it must learn how to handle the corn.
"We have difficulty imagining how our corn could end up in the human food supply," said Aventis spokeswoman Margaret Gadsby. "We have in place a stewardship program that is focused on keeping the corn in the proper channels, and it has had the full participation of the corn industry. We have every indication it is working well."
Although biotech crops are widespread, there have been only a few documented instances of their inappropriate presence. Early this year, for instance, some unapproved varieties of biotech canola were found growing in Europe. Critics say more examples have not been found because no government agencies are charged with finding them.
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio,) a biotech skeptic, said discovery of the unapproved corn shows that genetically engineered ingredients are not well regulated.
In a release from the Genetically Engineered Food Alert, Kucinich said, "It concerns me and should concern American consumers that this is a glimpse of things to come as genetically engineered products are rushed to store shelves without real mandatory safety testing and labeling programs in place."
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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