Taco shells recalled, possible food allergies

by Philip Brasher
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - With unapproved biotech corn already showing up in the food supply, the government was asked yesterday to temporarily allow its use for human consumption.

The industry said the move was urgently needed to head off further recalls and plant shutdowns. The concern is that some people might be allergic to food containing gene-altered corn.

But the corn's developer, Aventis CropScience of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said data it submitted yesterday show the corn, known as StarLink has "no potential" to affect people who suffer from food allergies.

In 1998, the government rejected Aventis' original request to approve the corn for human consumption, approving it only for animal feed and industrial uses because the government's scientific advisers were uncertain whether it was an allergen.

A protein special to the corn contains a common characteristic of food allergens, such as in peanuts, that degrades slowly in the digestive system. Aventis said the new data it supplied the Environmental Protection Agency provided "overwhelming support" for giving temporary human food-use approval to the corn.

There is so little of the corn in the food supply the chances are remote anyone would be exposed to enough of it to develop an allergy, according to a risk assessment prepared for Aventis by Novigen Sciences Inc.

"The possibility that it could be an allergen is remote," said Michael Phillips, director of food and agriculture issues for the Biotechnology Industry Organization. The supermarket industry wants the EPA to decide quickly.

"Whatever the agency decides to do, it has to be explained to the public in a manner that makes sense to consumers," said Karen Brown, senior vice president of the Food Marketing Institute. Anti-biotech groups that uncovered the corn in the food supply are urging the administration not to approve its use.

"For two years, the EPA had reservations about the safety of this corn," said Larry Bohlen, director of health and environment programs at Friends of the Earth. "Approval for human consumption by EPA, FDA or any federal governmental body now would seem to be based on politics, not science."

The EPA is deciding this matter - rather than the Food and Drug Administration or the Agriculture Department - because the corn is engineered to produce its own pesticide. Industry officials say they don't expect the EPA to act anytime soon because of opposition from environmental groups. EPA officials said they didn't expect to make a decision for several weeks at the earliest.