EPA panel: StarLink risk is low

There is a low probability that the very small quantities of Aventis CropScience's StarLink corn that American consumers are likely to eat in processed food products will cause significant allergic reactions, members of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency advisory panel said Tuesday. The EPA asked the committee to consider evidence about the potential allergenicity of StarLink in response to a petition from Aventis, which has asked the agency to grant a temporary tolerance to allow trace quantities of the corn in food products. Aventis, which has voluntarily removed StarLink from the market, is seeking to avoid further recalls of food products that have been accidentally contaminated with trace quantities of StarLink.

At the end of a 13-hour meeting, the informal consensus among members of the EPA's Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and Food Quality Protection Act Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) was that StarLink probably is not a significant threat to health, even if it is not possible to rule out the possibility that the Cry9C protein expressed in the corn is allergenic. The committee found that even if Cry9C is an allergen, there is a low probability that the use of StarLink in processed food has resulted in the sensitization of individuals to the protein because of actions that have been taken to keep StarLink out of the food supply, as well as factors such as the dilution of StarLink with other types of corn and degradation of the protein by food manufacturing processes. ...