StarLink corn contains a gene that creates a germ-killing substance said to cause allergic reactions in some humans. The United States is the only country to produce StarLink and the only one to approve it for use in animal feed. The corn was found in food products on Japanese supermarket shelves in October. Japan s Health and Welfare Ministry and the U.S. farm department have already agreed that all corn used for food products will be checked in the U.S. before shipment to Japan. According to the Japanese farm ministry, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan have also asked the U.S. to conduct pre-shipment inspections of animal feed for the presence of StarLink.
Genetic engineering is an unnecessary and unpredictable experiment with the safety of our food.
At the very least these products should be labelled so we can choose not to buy them, Loblaws won t even do that. The action comes days after a recent announcement that Loblaws is launching an organic line of products, which the company says will be free of genetically modified ingredients. The grocers, meanwhile, have renewed an earlier decision to not allow any food to be labelled free of genetically modified, or GM, ingredients. Some stores have been placing stickers over such labels since last spring, and will now require that food not be labelled GM-free at all if suppliers want to get it on grocers shelves. Jeanne Cruickshank, a spokesperson for the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, said the stickers were a temporary measure while suppliers changed their packaging to meet the grocers demands, which were reconfirmed at a recent meeting of the organization.