Banned US maize seized at British ports

All imports of United States corn have been stopped at British ports following the discovery that the US has been illegally exporting a banned GM maize to Europe for the past four years.

The unprecedented move, which has angered the Bush administration, follows efforts to hush-up and play down the scandal on both sides of the Atlantic.

For weeks the UK Government and the official food watchdogs have refused to look for imports of the maize, which is banned on health grounds. They have been forced to take action by the European Commission.

Yesterday the two main opposition parties blamed the delay on a pro-GM and pro-US bias in the Food Standards Agency, and pledged to correct it if they win the general election.

The scandal - the worst yet involving GM imports - centres around maize named Bt 11, which has been modified to repel a pest called the corn borer. It also contains a gene conferring resistance to antibiotics.

All such crops are banned in Europe because of fears that the resistance could be spread to people through the food chain.

Syngenta - the biotech company that developed the maize - told the US government last December that the crop had been grown over 37,000 acres of the country since 2001, because it had been confused with a similar, approved, maize.

It has been fined US$375,000 ($525,000) for the blunder. But the Bush administration failed for three months to inform customers in Europe that they were importing a banned maize.

The scandal was only admitted after it was exposed by the scientific magazine Nature, on 22 March. Even then the US failed to mention that the maize contained the gene for antibiotic resistance: the European Commission only learnt of that nine days later.

Europe is estimated to have imported about a thousand tons of the banned maize, though environmentalists say the figure could be much higher.

It all appears to have been used as animal feed, but the EC says its safety advisers cannot eliminate danger to people who consumed meat or dairy products from livestock that ate it.

It adds that it has no idea where the banned maize has gone in Europe or even whether the US stopped exporting it after the blunder was discovered. The British Government has played down the danger.

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said only "very small" amounts of maize were involved - echoing a statement from Syngenta - and there was "no actual indication" any had ended up in the UK.

The Food Standards Agency refused pleas to try to identify the maize in Britain on the grounds that, having carried out no tests, it was "not aware" of its presence.

It was forced into action by the EU. On Friday the import of US corn was stopped, until it could be proven to be free of the banned maize. Britain is holding it at its ports until it can be tested.

- INDEPENDENT