BioWorld International Correspondent

PARIS - The French Food Safety Agency expressed reservations about the genetically modified Bt11 sweet corn of Syngenta AG, shortly before ministers from the 15 European Union members were due to meet and decide whether or not to end the four-year moratorium on the sale of GM products.

Bt11 is one of 30 GM substances (consisting of 22 crops and eight foodstuffs) that have been awaiting marketing authorization since 1999, when a moratorium was imposed at the request of France and four other EU countries, pending the introduction of strict rules on the labeling and traceability of GM products.

Pointing out that Bt11 is a cross between a conventional sweet corn variety and a type of corn that is genetically modified to make it resistant to a herbicide (glufosinate) and insecticides, the agency (AFSSA) maintains that the dossier submitted by Syngenta, of Basel, Switzerland, is not complete because it relates to Bt11 corn and not specifically to the sweet corn derivative.

AFSSA said that nothing untoward has emerged from all the tests carried out on Bt11 corn, showing that the Cry1A(b) and PAT proteins responsible for its resistance to insecticides and herbicides had no adverse effects on laboratory animals and that tolerance and nutrition studies of hens and cattle fed with Bt11 transgenic corn were positive. But it said those results cannot be assumed to apply, per se, to Bt11 sweet corn.

Maintaining that the two types of corn are different, especially as regards the metabolism of sugars, AFSSA warned that "possible unexpected effects due to the genetic modification interfering with the specific metabolism of sweet corn cannot be ruled out." And it called for Bt11 sweet corn to be tested on rats and livestock.

In disputing the corn's safety, AFSSA is going against the opinion of an EU scientific committee, which asserted in April 2002 that Bt11 sweet corn was as safe a food for human consumption as its conventional equivalents. At their meeting on Dec. 8, the EU's member governments found themselves having to arbitrate in the quarrel, although they had the option of leaving it to the commission to decide whether or not finally to allow Bt11 sweet corn and other GM crops on the European market. A final decision was not reached.