Dutch corn gluten market on hold on GMO worries
Reuters World Report
Mittwoch, 15. Dezember 1999 20:20:00
Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.@bThe following news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Reuters Ltd.
AMSTERDAM, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Dutch market in U.S. corn
gluten, a major feed ingredient, has been thrown into confusion
after environmental group Greenpeace charged that shipments
contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs) not approved by
the European Union.
The Dutch feed industry has agreed with the Dutch Dairy
Industry Association not to use material from the recently
arrived Flag Diamond vessel after analysis by Greenpeace showed
presence of banned GMOs in corn gluten on the ship, spokesman
Tim Browers of the dairy group told Reuters.
Greenpeace campaigner Miriam Van Gool told Reuters that the
analysis showed at least two banned GMOs in the shipment of corn
gluten and it was logical to assume that most gluten arriving in
Europe also had such GMOs.
Greenpeace said the Flag Diamond departed from New Orleans
and the group was able to take samples during the ship's
stopover in Spain ahead of its arrival in Amsterdam.
The European Union has frozen approval of new GMOs and only
a handful have made it through the lengthy approval process.
The feed industry will also undertake a detailed
investigation of the wider implications of the issue, including
whether corn is being properly segregated in the United States
before being processed into gluten, a by-product of corn
sweetener.
The issue of GMOs in corn gluten had come up over the past
two years, and previously the Dutch government had taken the
position that since the gluten is processed at a high
temperature, no live genetic organisms remain.
But Greenpeace says that corn kernels with live GMOs are
also present in the corn gluten.
After the previous scare, the Dutch feed industry agreed
with the dairy association not to use any material with banned
GMOs. Browers said the dairy association was only asking the
feed industry to uphold this previous undertaking.
Traders said feed market conditions were slow in any case,
but trade in corn gluten was on hold following the latest
incident.
If worse came to worse, compound feed makers would
substitute citrus pulp, rapemeal or sunmeal in place of corn
gluten, they said.