EU authorities plan no action against the manufacturer of an unauthorised genetically modified (GMO) maize that found its way into Europe, and will leave the matter to the United States, the EU executive said on Monday. Two weeks ago Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta disclosed that some of its maize seeds were mistakenly contaminated between 2001 and 2004 with Bt-10, an insect-resistant strain that was not approved for distribution.
The unauthorised maize strain entered EU markets as seed, food and animal feed via exporters in the United States where Bt-10 got mixed with another strain, Bt-11, which is approved.
"We are not planning to take any measures. It is largely a matter for the US authorities...who were not aware that this was happening and also believed it was Bt-11," European Commission spokesman Philip Tod told a news briefing.
"In Europe, it is the responsibility of food operators in the first instance to ensure that they only put on the market food which is safe," he said.
EU authorities still do not know how, when and where all this happened. They have asked Syngenta to explain how to detect Bt-10, and the US government to give details on maize shipments that went to EU states during the three-year period.
They are also unhappy that Syngenta only told the Commission on March 31 that Bt-10 maize has a gene making it resistant to an important group of antibiotics and so differs from Bt-11. That was more than a week after news of the contamination emerged.
"This is a very deplorable situation. It's regrettable and we seek to avoid it happening. But there's no such thing as zero percent risk," a Commission official told reporters.
"The United States were also inadvertently misled. We regret we were not informed sooner, and more fully," he said.
Up to eight kilos (17.6 lb) of Bt-10 seeds, within a 100-kg lot of Bt-11 seed, arrived in France for research during the 2001-04 period, not for commercial growing. Two kg went to Spain. All the seeds have since been destroyed.
Some 1,000 tonnes of Bt-10 maize also entered the EU as food and animal feed but it is not clear to which countries. Around 70 percent of this is thought to be feed, while the Bt-10 food products would probably be maize oil and flour, officials said.
All feed and foods made from GMOs, whether GMO material exists in the final product or not, must be labelled in the EU.
But there is no requirement to label products such as meat, milk or eggs obtained from animals fed with GMO feed or treated with GMO medicinal products.
Tod said there were no plans to stop imports of Bt-11 maize, approved by the EU for use in industrial processing in 1998 and used mainly in animal feed rather than in food production.
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