GM rice protein found in animal feed

This came to the
Food safety Agency’s attention via an alert (RASSF) issued by
the European Commission on 22 March 2007, following investigations in Cyprus
that showed that the GM line Bt63 had been found in rice protein concentrate
imported from China via the Netherlands.

This GM line has not been
authorised in the EU.

Details of the distribution
of the feed was provided by the Dutch authorities. This showed that four
businesses in the UK had received
consignments of the potentially affected product from January to March
2007.

By 23 April, all four UK
businesses had confirmed to the Agency that they had been contacted by the Dutch
importer and their quarantined stocks of the feed had been returned for
disposal.

However, much of the feed had already
been used or sold earlier this year before the alert was
received.

Businesses in Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain
were also named as receiving consignments of the rice protein
concentrate.

The Commission has contacted the
Chinese authorities and expressed its concern over this incident.