The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on August 24 validated a real-time PCR test forLiberty Link (LL) Rice 601, an unapproved genetically modified (GM) rice variant. Traces of the rice had shown up in several bins of US rice producer Riceland of Stuttgart, Arkansas, as early as January, 2006 and also found their way to the food supply in Europe.
Both the EU and Japan had quickly demanded that all US exports of long-grain rice be certified as being free of the variant.
The USDA said it had been informed on July 31, 2006 by Bayer CropScience of Monheim, Germany, that traceamounts (6 out of every 10,000 kernels) of LL Rice 601 were found in bins holding commercial grain from the 2005 harvest of several southern US states.
It is not yet clear how the GM rice entered the supply chain.
Bayer developed LL Rice 601 in the 1990s as a GM herbicide-tolerant variety and conducted field tests between 1998 and 2001, but dropped the project without seeking market approval in the US or elsewhere.
The USDA and the US Food and Drug Administration said that LL Rice 601 poses no risk to human health or the environment. Bayer CropScience will now seek formalapproval for the variety despite having no plans to market the grain.