Brussels, 21/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - A new development in the US trans-genetic LL 601 long grain rice affair - it has been discovered, without authorisation, on EU market. On 21 September the Commission announced to the press that it had been informed by the Dutch authorities of contaminated rice in two US containers being found, which the Americans had certified as being exempt from LL 601. The two containers had travelled through Rotterdam and were already in Belgium before the test in the Netherlands turned out to be positive. The Commission immediately asked the Dutch authorities to inform all countries of this discovery that might have received this banned rice, so that they can intercept and test it. Philip Tod, the spokesperson for Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said that the incriminated cargoes were being held in Belgium.
Greenpeace International affirmed that this distressing event threatened, “the integrity and credibility of the EU's food safety system” and called on the Commission to “inform the US that in the future no imports of US rice would be authorised as long as the US authorities failed to implement a reliable certification system that guaranteed that any contamination in their country had been contained”.