Food Safety Outbreak: Corn
When the EPA granted biotechnology company Aventis a limited license to sell its genetically engineered Starlink corn in 1998, the agency trusted the company’s pledge that it could keep the corn from making its way into the human food chain. The bioengineered corn’s critics feared that a protein in the modified kernels could cause allergic reactions in people.
In September 2000, it was announced that Starlink Corn had indeed appeared in many human food products, including Taco Bell and Safeway taco shells and corn chips. Aventis blamed farmers, saying perhaps they weren’t aware that the corn should not be sold for human consumption.
By November 2000, an FDA recall had spread to 300 products, including corn chips and a 55,000 ton shipment of corn destined for Japan. More than 50 people reported allergic reactions, though the Center for Disease Control study did not detect antibodies to the new protein.
For several years after the recall, corn supplies were tested for the presence of the engineered protein. Eight years later in 2008, the EPA finally determined that the pesticidal protein in Starlink Corn, known as Cry9C, had disappeared from the food stream so that testing was no longer needed.
Aventis withdrew its registration mark for Starlink and sold its CropScience division to another company, Bayer.
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Sources
Kreiter, M. 2000. StarLink Corn Scandal Continues to Spread:
Third brand of taco shells contains StarLink. United Press International.
October 25.
Comments on the Assessment of Scientific Information
Concerning StarLink Corn (Cry9C Bt Corn Plant-Pesticide)
EPA Docket Number OPP-00688 By Michael Hansen, Ph.D. Consumer Policy Institute/Consumer Union November 28, 2000.
Withdrawal of Guidance: Guidance for Industry on the FDA Recommendations for Sampling and Testing Yellow Corn and Dry-Milled Yellow Corn Shipments Intended for Human Food Use for Cry9C Protein Residues. Federal Register: April 25, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 81)
