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EU demands an explanation over GM maize import

The European Commission demanded an explanation Friday from US authorities over how 1,000 tonnes of genetically-modified maize entered the EU despite a ban.

EU consumer protection commissioner Markos Kyprianou condemned the way the maize, developed by Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta, had been let onto the European market.

"The European Commission deplores the fact that a GMO [genetically modified organism] which has not been authorized through the EU's comprehensive legislative framework for GMOs, nor by any other country, has been imported into the EU," he said.

"We are writing to the US authorities asking them to guarantee, by taking the appropriate measures, that present and future exports of maize to the EU do not contain GMOs which are not authorized for the EU market," he added.

The EU's executive arm is also seeking clarification from Syngenta about the import of the unauthorized genetically modified maize type Bt10.

It said that an estimated 1,000 tonnes of Bt10 food and feed products may have entered the EU labelled as a different form of maize, Bt11, since 2001, the date from which the inadvertent release of Bt10 started.

Syngenta, formed from the 2000 merger of Zeneca and Novartis, admitted last month having accidentally sold to the US genetically modified maize that had not been approved by US authorities.

The company said the essential protein of its Bt10 maize variety is identical to its Bt11 line, which has been approved for farming and consumption in the US, EU and Japan since the late 1990s.
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