Source: EU Business
Environmental group Greenpeace said Monday that an illegal genetically modified maize had been found in a US shipment to Europe, the fourth such case in two years. Greenpeace said it had analysed cargo that arrived in the port at Rotterdam, the Netherlands on April 10 and found that it contained 2.4 percent of the GMO Herculex, a maize manufactured by the firm Pioneer and not yet legal in the EU.

It said in a statement that the ship carrying the maize had offloaded some cargo in Ireland but the group could not determine whether the GMO had landed there. The European Commission said it had not been told about the find, but that if it were the case it would be “up to the Dutch authorities to send the maize back to the United States.” Since new authorisation rules were introduced in 2004, about 10 GM strains have been cleared for the EU market, mainly for maize destined for human or animal consumption.

The EU has seen three “major incidences” of unauthorised GM products — all originating from the United States — reaching the EU market since the new rules went into force. Those episodes concerned the discovery of shipments of long-grain GM rice, maize gluten last year, and Hawaiian papaya in 2004 and 2005. Herculex has received a “positive scientific evaluation” from EU food safety experts and the bloc is expected to decide on June 8 whether it should be allowed in.