Illegal GM flax in 10 EU countries? - FSA still fails to act in UK
Immediate Release23 September 2009
Illegal GM flax in 10 EU countries? - FSA still fails
to act in UK
The UK Food Standards Agency
claims that there are "no grounds for issuing a Food Alert" [1] in response the
EU Rapid Action Alert have been challenged by GM Freeze, who have written again
to the FSA demanding answers to several key questions. [2] The GMO in question
was deregistered in 2001 by Canadian authorities and never commercialised under
pressure from Canadian flax growers concerned about exactly this sort of
contamination.
The EU issued the first alert
on 8 September, and has issued four further alerts on new incidents [3], after
flax/linseed grain and seed stock imported from Canada was discovered to be
contaminated with a GMO illegal both here and in Canada. [4] EU alerts state
that parts of contaminated shipments may now have been distributed to 11 EU
countries. [5]
GM Freeze believes that in
order to determine the grounds for issuing an alert in the UK, the FSA must
give clear answers to the following questions:
1.Have all UK
imports from Canada been monitored for GM presence? If so, what were the
results?
2.What are the
origins of grain imports received from other EU states?
3.Have these
imports been monitored for GM?
4.Are EU grown
crops produced using seed from Canada?
5.Have seed
imports into the EU been monitored for GM?
6.Where is flax
grown in the UK and what are the main uses?
7.Has UK grown
flax been monitored for GM presence in the last two years?
Previous GM contamination
incidents involving US rice and maize have led to the FSA being severely
criticised for their failure to act quickly and issue appropriate Food Alerts. [3]
GM Freeze has previously
called on the FSA to carrying out risk assessments [3] on potential GM
contamination in imports, which would include mapping the pattern of imports
and knowing the end products likely to be affected. If they had done this in
advance, the FSA would have been in a position to know where to monitor for
contamination and to quickly withdraw products from the market.
Defra have not responded to
GM Freeze's letter of 14 September that asked for details of monitoring of GM
presence in imported seed.
Commenting Eve Mitchell of
GM Freeze said:
"The FSA is not in a position to say that there are 'no grounds for issuing
a food alert' before answering some very basic questions. We urgently need
those answers and a full analysis to be published in order to fully understand
the risks to both flax imports and the movement of flax products and seeds in
the UK and EU.
"If the FSA had prepared in advance and fully
understood the market for flax products and seed, it would not have taken
nearly three weeks to decide if testing is required, and action could have been
taken by now to recall products potentially contaminated with this illegal
GMO.
"There seems to be no sign of any action from the FSA,
which is echoes their past handling of GM contamination incidents. Instead the
FSA appear to be waiting for someone else to tell them where the GM flax is
before they will act. This is very disappointing as the FSA is supposed to promote
and protect consumer safety."
ENDS
Calls to Eve
Mitchell, GM Freeze Coordinator01381 610 740
Pete Riley, GM
Freeze Campaigns Director 0845 217 8992 or 07903 341065
Notes
[1] Letter from FSA to GM
Freeze dated 18 September 2009.
[4] The UK imported over 900
tons of linseed directly from Canada in 2008, and also imports linseed from
other EU states (eg, The Netherlands, Belgium and Eire). The origins of these
imports is not clear, as crops imported from outside the EU are often
trans-shipped within the EU but recorded as imports from the EU country. The
UK's total import of flax/linseed was 10,308 tons in 2008. Flax is grown in the
UK on a small area, and seed imports in 2008 came from The Netherlands (14
tons).
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