A Japanese consumer group has said it has found new traces of the banned StarLink corn in food. The Consumers Union of Japan said that Genetic ID Japan, a unit of US-based Genetic ID, has detected StarLink traces in one of 14 food products tested.
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Mascot’s taco produced by Tokyo-based food maker Mascot Food Co. has been named as the StarLink-tainted food.
Despite government steps to prevent StarLink from entering the country, samples of food-use corn that had tested negative on the US side have since been found to contain StarLink when tested by Japan.
Japan and the US set up a testing regime last year to prevent StarLink from being exported to Japan after earlier imports revealed that the unapproved corn had been mixed with normal batches of the crop.
StarLink has not gained approval worldwide for human consumption due to concerns about potential allergic reactions. StarLink is not approved for either food use or animal feed in Japan.
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By GlobalDataMeanwhile, Japan’s Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry will dispatch a small team of officials to the United States to observe government testing for StarLink bio-corn.
The officials are expected to meet technical staff with the U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA). The trip comes a week after the USDA sent its own team to Tokyo to determine why the countries were repeatedly getting different StarLink test results.
