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Home >> Plant Biotechnology and Genomics >> Field Testing and Commercialization >> Starlink Corn and Biosafety

StarLink corn and biosafety
StarLink corn is a transgenic product of Aventis Crop Science and contains the. Bt gene Cry9C derived from Bacillus thuringiensis, that confers resistance against important com insect pests like European corn borer. It was the only com variety in USA, which was' approved for use as animal feed without concurrent approval for use in human foods. Although there were no health risks associated with StarLink, but there were some questions about its allergenic potential that remained unanswered. Other insect resistant transgenic com varieties commercially grown in USA contain Bt genes like CyrlA and not Cry9C.

In September/October, 1998, in USA, traces of StarLink corn were noticed in Kraft food products (Taco Bell tortillas) by activist coalition "Genetic Engineering Food Alert (GEFA); Washington, DC". This initiated a voluntary recall of all products containing StarLink corn. The product is no longer offered for sale and the registration for StarLink com has been withdrawn.

The latest information on StarLink was evaluated again in 2001 and "low probability of allergenicity" was inferred, since wet-milling corn removes all Cry9C protein from products made by that process. Despite this, presence of StarLink in human food was not supported, because the harmful effects could not be completely ruled out. Therefore, it was also recommended that in future transgenic food crops will be approved only if scientific data supported no risk in their use, both as feed and food (not merely for feed, as was done in case of StarLink). Nevertheless, this is an example where the industry failed to comply with the terms of its licence, and therefore, created difficulties for the industry in the area of crop biotechnology.

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