# CORN-FLAP POINTS TO FOOD PROBLEM



## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

OCTOBER 21, 16:10 EDT CORN FLAP POINTS TO FOOD PROBLEMBy PHILIP BRASHER AP Farm Writer--------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON (AP) ï¿½ The discovery of an unapproved variety of gene-altered corn in the nation's food supply is pointing out unanswered questions about human allergies that are likely to challenge the biotechnology industry for some time to come. The genetically engineered corn, known as StarLink, is not approved for human consumption because of a special protein it contains that takes longer than normal to break down in the digestive system. Scientists think, but don't know for sure, that the ability of a protein to withstand heat and gastric juices is an indicator that it will cause an allergic reaction. Peanuts, which can cause fatal allergic reactions, have that characteristic, and so do other foods known to be allergy inducing. ``Right now sensitivity to any protein is an unknown,'' said Ricki Hall, an allergy expert with the Arkansas Children's Hospital who is serving on a panel of scientists advising the Environmental Protection Agency on genetically engineered crops. So far, StarLink is the only variety of biotech corn or any other gene-altered crop now on the market in which questions remain about potential allergy problems, according to the government. Future biotech crops with unusual proteins also could raise similar problems, Hall said. ``There are so many complicated issues involved in allergenicity,'' Hall said. Federal regulators say there is little, if any, health risk from the StarLink corn, developed by Aventis CropScience of Research Triangle Park, N.C. The corn was approved only for animal feed or industrial uses. ``It's not the human health risk that is concerning,'' said Lester Crawford, director of Georgetown University's Center for Food and Nutrition Policy. ``It's that it got in there (the food supply) in the first place.'' On Saturday, The Kellogg Co., one of the largest producers of breakfast cereal, confirmed that operations at a plant it owns in Memphis, Tenn., was shut down last week when its supplier stopped corn shipments. The company said the supplier could not guarantee the corn was free of StarLink. The corn also spawned a nationwide recall of taco shells in September after its presence was discovered in tests sponsored by environmental groups opposed to biotech crops. That corn came from last year's crop and was traced to a mill in Texas. Aventis has withdrawn StarLink from the market and disclosed that it has been unable to locate 9 million bushels of this year's crop. The missing corn eventually could show up in a variety of corn products, including snack chips and breakfast cereals. StarLink is among several types of corn, cotton and potatoes that contain a bacterium gene, known as Bt for short, that makes them toxic to insect pests. Bt sprays have been long popular with organic growers and haven't been known to cause allergic reactions, according to EPA. People would have to be exposed to the special StarLink protein, known as Cry9C, many times over an extended period to develop an allergy to it, said Steve Taylor, a University of Nebraska professor who is considered one of the nation's leading experts on allergies and biotech food. Since relatively little of the corn was ever grown, and most of that was used for animal feed, ``this clearly would not produce protein levels of any health concern,'' Taylor said in a statement filed Friday with the EPA. The Cry9C protein accounts for 0.013 percent of the corn grain, whereas most allergenic proteins account for 1 to 40 percent of the food ingredients in which they appear, Taylor said. Health risk or not, StarLink has proved a major embarrassment for biotech and food companies. The food industry is pressing EPA to grant a temporary food-use approval for StarLink, which would remove the need for additional recalls, but the agency has given no indication it will go along. Opponents of biotech food say the appearance of the corn in the food supply shows that the regulatory system is faulty and too little is known about the allergenicity of genetically engineered crops. Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, urged the EPA on Friday to require additional allergy testing for all existing Bt crops, including skin-prick tests. The National Academy of Sciences recommended this year additional research on the allergy issue and singled out the Cry9C protein as needing special attention. The protein takes at least 30 minutes to break down in gastric juices, about four times as long as proteins in other Bt corn varieties. ________________________________NOTE: Skin prick test results will be useless for evaluating accurately potential reactivity of even Type I allergenicity to GMO such as this, since these tests are no better than 50% positiviely predictive.MNL____________________ www.leapallergy.com


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