Officials swoop on GM crop

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Biosecurity investigators will swoop on the Gisborne region today in pursuit of another corn crop potentially contaminated with genetically modified material.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry disclosed last night that routine testing for a Japanese importer of pizza-topping mix containing New Zealand-grown sweetcorn had sparked the country's second major GM security alert within a year.

Japanese testing found possible GM contamination in the pizza mix, but the sweetcorn was just one ingredient.

A subsequent Japanese test of New Zealand sweetcorn with no added ingredients found no such contamination, but results from follow-up tests at a Melbourne laboratory showed up as GM positive.

Last August, about 30 tonnes of suspected GM-contaminated corn seed was found on farms around Pukekohe and Gisborne. It was destroyed before being processed.

Word of the latest scare came on the same day the Broadcasting Standards Authority partially upheld a complaint by Prime Minister Helen Clark about TV3's reporting of an earlier alert, revealed in Nicky Hager's controversial book Seeds of Distrust.

The corn on the Japanese pizza was part of a crop harvested from 200kg of seeds tested and certified as GM-free after being imported last year, and biosecurity officials are keen to discover where the rest ended up.

The seeds were planted over about 30ha at four sites in the Gisborne region, all controlled by a single New Zealand company, which the ministry will not name without its consent.

Neither would ministry biosecurity group director Barry O'Neil disclose the exact locations last night, although he said there was nothing left of the crop and the main focus of his officials today would be to comb through company records to find out where it went.

They would also investigate neighbouring crops, in case of any cross-pollinated contamination.

The Food Safety Authority said the corn was likely to be among seven varieties approved under joint Australian and New Zealand standards as suitable for human consumption, subject to proper labelling.

But authority dairy and plant products director Tim Knox promised "further action" if this turned out not to be the case.

Asked about possible damage to New Zealand's reputation as a "clean, green" exporter of food, he said Japan had approved a wider range of GM food imports than allowed in this country.

Last night's revelation came eight days after the Agriculture Ministry was contacted by the corn producer with word of the initial Japanese test.

But Dr O'Neil said his agency acted as quickly as it could.

Results received from Melbourne on Thursday night indicated no GM material in the seed that was planted, but possible contamination in the harvested crop.

Although this was disappointing, the ministry was waiting for another batch of results to arrive last night.

"MAF is taking this investigation very seriously and is working closely with Environmental Risk Management Authority officials," Dr O'Neil said.

He said it was unclear whether the subsequent contamination was from possible cross-pollination or from the proliferation in the mature crop of a minute amount of GM material which might have escaped detection in the imported seed.

The original tests last year on the imported seed gave his officials 95 per cent confidence that any GM contamination was below a detectable level of one seed in a thousand.



Green Party MP Sue Kedgley said the development raised the possibility the seed was contaminated in New Zealand.



additional reporting: Kevin Taylor