May 3, 2007

Dutch food safety agency to track down illegal GM corn shipments from US

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (VWA) will trace an illegal consignment of genetically modified corn from the United States which will be used to manufacture animal feed.

This came after environmental organisation Greenpeace reported that illegal shipment had been found through samples taken from a shipload of corn that disembarked in Rotterdam port on April 10.

The Dutch government said Tuesday (May 1) it will conduct its own tests and may consider other steps depending on their investigation.

A spokesman for the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said if Greenpeace's findings proved correct, the Netherlands should return the shipment to the United States.

In addition to the prohibited GM corn load, the shipment also contained at least seven different varieties of genetically modified corn. A second batch on the ship which was supposed to be free of genetically modified corn was found to contain excessive levels of at least two variants, according to the report.