Food Safety Minister Calls for Review of Lysine GM Corn Assessment

Food Safety Minister Annette King has called for a review of the new variety of GM corn with high lysine content that the Trans-Tasman food regulator (FSANZ) had said was safe to be a human food (see release below). The Sustainability Council and Canterbury University's Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety have been pressing for this action due to the precedent that would be set by making legal a GM product that was never intended for human consumption and also because of the particular food safety risks this form of GM corn carries.

The minister's call for a review is an important step towards halting the audacious bid by GM plant developers to have Australian and New Zealand regulators abandon a fundamental principle of food safety testing. It puts back to FSANZ the question of what would be the results if the lysine corn were consistently tested against the appropriate non-GM corn, rather than against another genetically modified variety - contrary to internationally accepted practice. FSANZ now has three months to conduct the review and report back to the ministers of each Australian state and Annette King. The terms of reference set for this review will be critical to its outcome.

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21/02/2007
King seeks a Ministerial Council review of GM corn approval

A number of groups have raised concerns with Food Safety Minister Annette King about the proposed approval of genetically modified high lysine corn LY038, and as a result she has requested that the Ministerial Council seek a review of the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) proposal to approve the corn.

FSANZ recommended that the Ministerial Council approve the sale and use of food derived from LY038 corn. The corn has been genetically modified by Monsanto to have increased levels of the amino acid lysine and has been designed as an animal feed. Corn is not traditionally a good source of lysine, and conventional diets for some animals (such as pigs and chickens) are characteristically deficient in lysine and require the addition of supplemental lysine for optimal growth and performance.

Though the corn has been developed as an animal feed, there is a chance that it could inadvertently enter the food chain, so, as with all other GM animal feeds, it has to be approved for human consumption before it can be approved as an animal feed.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is the trans-Tasman body with responsibility for drafting food standards, which are ultimately decided upon by the Australia New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council (ANZFRMC).

Annette King is a member of the ANZFRMC, which is responsible (amongst other things) for the development of food regulatory policy and policy guidelines for setting food standards that are shared between Australia and New Zealand. It has the capacity to adopt, amend or reject standards and to request that these be reviewed.

The Minister sought a review on the grounds that there were inconsistencies between the processes described in the domestic and international standards, in particular, the choice of comparator. The process may, as a result, need revisiting in order to ensure consumer confidence is maintained.

ENDS

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