SOUTH KOREA: Korea finds unlabelled GM corn, beans on local market

2 Apr 2001

Source: Reuters

 SEOUL, April 2 (Reuters) - South Korea said on Monday it had found four
cases of genetically modified (GM) U.S. corn  and soybeans among
unlabelled products on the local market.

 "Three lots of soybeans and one lot of corn tested positive for genetic
modification among 290 samples of non-labelled  corn, soybeans and bean
sprouts (in the internal market)," an agriculture ministry official told
Reuters.

"Those four cases were all U.S. imports," he said.

  Korea has required labelling of GM corn, soybeans and bean sprouts for
human consumption since the start of last  month, and the ruling extends
to potatoes in March 2002.

 The government ordered the positive samples to be properly labelled and
some 172 companies, which were not prepared for the new rules, were also
told to label genetically modified content appropriately, the
agriculture ministry  official said.

 Some Chinese corn in the internal market tested positive in the first
round of tests, but the corn will be retested to  confirm the result.

 The agriculture ministry plans to take samples of Chinese corn before
it is unloaded at ports, because of concern  Chinese corn might get
mixed with U.S. corn during distribution.

 The National Agriculture Product Quality Management Service conducts
the GM tests. The country has a three  percent tolerance rate for grains
containing GM.

 Processed food containing GM corn, soybeans and bean spouts will need
to be labelled from July 2001.

  (C) Reuters Limited 2001.