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| Biotech Updates |
| StarLink Corn: Japan & US Revise Testing Accord; No News on Allergenicity Front; No Change in EPA's Stance on StarLink - February 26, 2001 |
| The United States and Japan established in November an agreement for
testing corn in the US to demonstrate the relative effectiveness of US
efforts to keep StarLink corn out of shipments bound for export. Part of
this agreement included joint testing of the same batches by the US and
by the Japanese. On at least four occasions the Japanese detected StarLink
corn in samples that in the US had tested free of StarLink.
In February Japan and the US announced that they will double the amount of corn in each sample to approximately 2,400 kernels. Furthermore, the samples will now be taken from corn shipments bound for Japan, rather than from corn in the general commercial stream in the US. In other areas of the StarLink controversy, the Centers for Disease Control have not yet released the results of their study of the approximately 40 people who reported allergy-like symptoms after eating corn products last summer. The study is assessing whether the Cry9C protein of StarLink triggers such reactions. The Environmental Protection Agency is still reviewing the request by StarLink's maker, Aventis, for an exemption from tolerance for Cry9C that would remove the protein's current status as an unapproved component of food. No decision is expected until after the CDC reports its findings. http://www.fas.usda.gov/starlink.html
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| For more information, contact:
Tom Zinnen 425 Henry Mall Madison WI 53706 608-265-2420 zinnen@biotech.wisc.edu |
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