Almost All Altered Corn Tracked Down, USDA Says

Government officials have tracked down all but 1.5% of a corn crop that is not approved for human consumption but that found its way into the food supply, the Agriculture Department said Thursday.

That leaves 1.2 million bushels of the 80 million-bushel crop unaccounted for, down from 4.5 million bushels that could not be traced as of early this week.

The USDA announcement came as government officials prepared to brief members of the European Union today in Washington about efforts to track StarLink corn. Public opposition to genetically modified foods is greater in most of Europe than it is in the U.S., and the European Union has barred new gene-spliced products for several years.

U.S. agriculture officials were also conferring with their counterparts in Japan, where a consumer group announced Wednesday that the corn had been found in cornmeal. It was the first indication that the corn had been shipped abroad. Japanese officials have not approved the corn for use there.

“We’re meeting to let them know what we’re doing to locate the corn, and also to listen to them,” Susan McAvoy, a USDA spokeswoman in Washington, said of the meetings in Japan.

The corn, sold under the name StarLink, was genetically engineered to produce its own insecticide. U.S. officials approved it for animal feed, but it was barred for human consumption because of concern that it might cause allergic reactions.

The developer of the corn, Aventis CropScience of Research Triangle Park, N.C., a unit of Aventis of France, was responsible for installing safeguards to make sure farmers and storage facilities did not mix StarLink with corn bound for consumer products. Still, a coalition of consumer groups has found the unapproved corn in several brands of taco shells, all of which have been recalled. About 9 million of the 80 million bushels of StarLink corn had left U.S. farms before concerns arose about its presence in consumer products. U.S. officials have been working with Aventis to trace the corn.

The StarLink experience could prompt some changes in U.S. policy on genetically modified crops. A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency said it is unlikely the agency would approve any other grain for use purely as an animal feed because of fears of commingling.

There also is a chance that the USDA will consider new rules governing the segregation of genetically modified crops.

StarLink is the only genetically modified crop approved for animals but not humans. It is being withdrawn from the market.

Also Thursday, the U.S. government lifted export restrictions on StarLink so exporters could ship corn that had been commingled with “trace amounts” of the unapproved variety. However, the government warned that this corn may be used only as animal feed or for nonfood industrial uses. Exporters must include in sales contracts a statement describing how the corn will be used.