Govt stops ‘GM suspect’ food, importing NGOs give up claim

A consignment of 1000 tonnes of corn-soya blend from the US was stopped by the Indian Government on ground that it may contain unapproved ge...

A consignment of 1000 tonnes of corn-soya blend from the US was stopped by the Indian Government on ground that it may contain unapproved genetically modified (GM) material.

The importing agencies Care-India and Catholic Relief Fund had appealed to an appellate authority but decided to withdraw their plea today.

The apprehension was that the consignment may contain hazardous starlink corn, which has not been approved by the US government for human consumption. This decision was taken by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the apex body for control, regulation and import of all GM food in the country.

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Both Care-India and CRF had approached the one-man appellate authority on the import. The US govt had failed to certify that the consignment did not contain the starlink corn. Similar controversies has been part of US import of corn-soya to Japan and Australia.

The GM starlink corn was developed by developed by Aventis Crop Sciences and it had got into the foodchain in September 2000 sparking a nationwide recall of more than 300 varieties of corn food. US has approved it only for animal feed and not for human consumption.

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