EU says quizzes Syngenta over biotech maize

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission said on
Tuesday it had asked Swiss agrochemicals company Syngenta to
confirm the reliability of detection methods for its Bt10
genetically modified maize.

Syngenta came under fire last year for accidentally mixing
some insect-resistant Bt10 — which has not been approved by
the European Union for import — into its approved Bt11 biotech
seeds between 2001 and 2004.

The European Union’s executive said it sent a letter to the
company in the light of concerns expressed by the Community
Reference Laboratory for GMOs for Food and Feed that the
methods might not have excluded false-negative results.

“Syngenta have told us they cannot guarantee their method
100 percent,” European Commission spokeswoman Antonia Mochan
told a daily news briefing.

Syngenta said it had replied to the request for further
information.

“The method has been used in about 20,000 tests worldwide
for Bt10 in the past year and the number of detections
generated in that time is statistically consistent with the
known plantings of Bt10,” a spokesman for the Basel-based
company said.

Shares in Syngenta were trading 0.5 percent higher at
188.40 Swiss francs by 1456 GMT in a market which was 0.3
percent lower at 8,058.74 points.