EPA to Revoke StarLink Corn Registration to End Planting

A day after more supermarket taco shells were pulled off the market because they contain a controversial genetically modified corn, the Environmental Protection Agency has moved to revoke the corn’s registration, ensuring that it will no longer be planted even for animal feed in the United States.

The move signals the agency’s intention to discontinue allowing production of crops that aren’t intended for human consumption.

StarLink corn, which has been found in taco shells from two separate manufacturers in the last month, was not approved for use in food because the plant pesticide it produces may be difficult for humans to digest.

“Since the checks and balances [the growers] had in place and the assurances didn’t work out, it would take a very high hurdle for us to ever approve a product like this again,” says Stephen Johnson, the EPA’s deputy assistant administrator for pesticides.

However, the EPA cautioned that the move is not cause for consumer alarm. It does not have evidence that StarLink causes allergic reactions in humans and it believes the health risks to humans “if any, are extremely low.”

The corn’s developer, Aventis, already had suspended sales of the seed for next year’s plantings and agreed to reimburse the government for purchasing all of this year’s harvest.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway Inc. removed taco shells from its 1,600 stores Wednesday night after learning of test results that indicated that its store-brand taco shells contain the biotech corn. The chain also pulled Mission brand taco shells made by Irving, Texas-based Mission Foods Corp., which also made the Safeway brand shells.

Kraft Foods had issued a similar recall last month for its Taco Bell-brand taco shells after tests commissioned by environmental group Friends of the Earth indicated the presence of StarLink corn. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is testing other products for StarLink.

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Times wire services contributed to this report.