[getsmart-l] Key question for the British Food Standards Agency: GM rice contamination review

[23skidoo]

PRESS RELEASE 
IMMEDIATE RELEASE   
25 October 2007 

Key questions for the FSA's GM Rice contamination Review 


GM Freeze has written to the chair [1] of the Food Standards Agency's 
internal review of the handling of the GM rice contamination in 2006 setting 
out the questions in eight key areas which need to be answered during the 
process if similar incidents are to be avoided in the future. 


The GM contamination involved the presence of an experimental GM rice 
developed by Bayer CropScience known as LL601.  LL601 was detected at low 
levels in long grain rice exports from the USA around the world including in 
the UK and EU. It involved the largest recall of consumer products ever in 
the UK. 


As an unapproved GM variety, LL601 could not be legally sold in any member 
state and consequently the European Commission issued Emergency Regulations 
to deal with the incident.  The measures required by the EC included the 
prevention of further LL601 imports and the removal of existing stock from 
the market. 


The FSA's handling of the removal of the rice from the food chain came under 
heavy criticism [1] and resulted in a Judicial Review in the High Court 
earlier in 2007 [2]. 


GM Freeze have identified 8 key areas on which the review needs to focus on 
so that everything is done in the future to prevent another GM 
contaminations incident. The areas are: 


..      The lack of forward planning by the FSA to handle contamination 
incidents. 
..      The capacity of the FSA to carry out forward planning. 
..      The impact of the lack of availability an analytical technique for 
LL601 during the first few weeks of the contamination. 
..      Why the FSA failed to issue a Food Alert at any time during the 
incident. 
..      The chain of command between the FSA and local authorities. 
..      Why the LL601 contamination was not picked up by UK monitoring. 
..      Should the FSA take overall control of contamination incidents and 
what role should the local authorities and the FSA in Scotland, Wales and 
Northern Ireland perform? 
..      Were there external influences which affected the FSA's decisions 
and judgments? 


And finally 
..      How did the FSA's relationship with the UK food industry and their 
trade bodies impact on how they handled the LL601 contamination incident? 


An independent review of the FSA's handling of the Sudan 1 (an illegal food 
colourant) contamination in 2005 was also very critical and identified many 
weaknesses in the Agency's response. In 2006, the FSA was also criticised 
for their handling of the contamination of maize imports from the USA with a 
GM maize known as Bt10[4]. 


GM Freeze has been monitoring the enforcement of the GMO traceability and 
labelling Regulation in the UK for the past three years [5].  This year they 
published an analysis of which food and feed imports were most at risk from 
GM contamination [6]. 


Commenting Pete Riley of GM Freeze said 


"We were not at all impressed by the FSA's handling of the LL601 GM rice 
contamination from the start.  It followed hard on the heels of another GM 
contamination incident in 2005 involving GM maize when there was a similar 
lack of urgency and direction from the FSA.  These incidents call into 
question the FSA's ability to plan in advance for contamination incidents, 
their ability to co-ordinate with other parts of the regulatory system and 
their overall commitment to police the import and labelling of GM foodstuffs 
and animal feeds. 


"The FSA must take GM contamination more seriously from now on because the 
risk is growing and in the future could involve the presence of GM 
pharmaceutical genes in food.  At present, we have serious doubts whether 
the FSA could deal with an incident such as GM vaccine genes getting into 
cornflakes". 


ENDs 


Call to Pete Riley 07903 3410965 


Notes 


1.      Chitra Bharucha (Chair of the Advisory Committee on Animal 
Feedingstuffs). 
2.      http://www.gmfreeze.org/page.asp?id=302&iType=1079 
3. 
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/food_standard_agency_fac... 
2006.html 
4.      http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/sudanreview.pdf 
5.      http://www.gmfreeze.org/admin/uploads/report_doc.pdf 
6.      http://www.gmfreeze.org/admin/uploads/report_doc.pdf 
7.      http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/GM_contamination_final.pdf 


Eve Mitchell - Coordinator 
GM Freeze 
94 White Lion Street 
London  N1  9PF 


Tuesday - Friday 
tel: 0207 837 0642 
fax: 0207 837 1141 
mobile: 07962 437 128