The nation's largest manufacturer of tortilla products, Mission Foods Co. of Irving, Texas, has already recalled all of its tortillas, taco shells and snack chips and said it was switching from yellow to white corn because the flour may contain an unapproved biotech variety of grain. That move followed a decision by Safeway Inc. to remove all of Mission's taco shells from its stores and an earlier recall of taco shells by Kraft Foods. A sister company to Mission, Azteca Milling, announced that it was recalling all of its flour made from yellow corn. Azteca supplied the flour for both the Mission Foods and Kraft taco shells. At issue is a variety of genetically engineered corn, known as StarLink, that is not approved for human consumption because of questions about its potential to cause allergic reactions.
Federal officials say the health risk is remote.
Mission Foods is a subsidiary of Gruma S.A. of Monterrey, Mexico. Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland Co. Mission's recall applies to all of its tortilla products, which are sold under both the Mission name and under a variety of private and generic labels. The volume of product was not immediately known, officials said. Information about the recall was to be posted to the company's Web site . Officials with Azteca Milling said they initiated their recall of the flour because they were not confident of methods of testing for the StarLink corn.