The discovery of an illegal genetically modified potato grown in Sweden is being investigated by European Commissioner John Dalli’s department in Brussels.
Confirming the find, Mr Dalli’s spokesman told the Brussels-based press the Commission had already summoned officials of BASF, the German company responsible for the GM crop, to obtain more information on what happened and to take the necessary measures.
“For the time being we are only investigating as we need more information before drawing any conclusions,” the spokesman said, adding that, evidently, there had been a blunder.
He said the wrong type of potato was sent to Sweden and the Commission wanted to know why Amadea flowers, a GM crop being prepared by BASF but not yet authorised, were found in a field in Sweden.
Brussels is also summoning food safety authorities from Sweden, Germany and the Czech Republic, the three territories where Amflora – a strain of potato authorised used for the likes of glue or papermaking, but not human consumption – is legally grown.
According to Greenpeace, the potato had been “grown illegally in open fields in Sweden for months” by Plant Science Sweden, a subsidiary of BASF.
The environmental campaigners said that, while Amadea had been cleared from a field planted on June 11, Amflora was allowed to remain after “a deplorable lapse in bio-security”. A spokesman said this showed that such companies “cannot be trusted”.
BASF admitted on its website that it had found “extremely small quantities of Amadea potatoes in Amflora fields” during “regular in-house quality controls”. It said the “level of co-mingling is less than 0.01 per cent, which translates into 47 Amadea plants among about 680,000 Amflora plants, “all of which had been removed”.
Soon after becoming a member of the EU Executive, Mr Dalli authorised the cultivation of the Amflora potato in the EU to be used for industrial purposes, the first GM cultivation allowed in 13 years.
His decision was harshly criticised by pro-environment lobby groups across the EU.