The Hindu Business Line : Imported soya oil safe, says US body

THE American Soyabean Association (ASA) has refuted claims about imported soyabean oil derived from genetically modified (GM) soyabean being unsafe for human consumption.

``More than 250 million Americans have been eating soya oil from GM beans for more than five years with no ill effects. 80 per cent of all vegetable oil consumed in the US is soyabean oil and more than half is from GM beans'', ASA's Regional Director, Asia Subcontinent, Mr Virgil Miedema, told newspersons here on Saturday.

Moreover, he pointed out that soyabean oil per se does not contain any protein or DNA material, which means it is not possible to physically or chemically make out whether the oil was extracted from GM or non-GM soyabean. It is for this reason that even most countries in Europe and Japan — which follow a cautious, if not hostile, approach to GM crops — do not bring vegetable oils within the purview of labelling that is otherwise mandatory for all GM foods.

Mr Miedema noted that as per the United Kingdom Food Safety Agency's regulations, the requirement for labelling arises only if there is presence of any novel DNA or protein in the final food. But ingredients obtained from GM crops, but which do not themselves contain novel DNA or protein, do not have to be labelled. ``Even if a country were to ban the import of GM soyabean oil, there would be no enforce such a ban as the oil contains no DNA or protein'', he added.

Besides expressing concern over the Agriculture Ministry's proposed move to ban imports of soyabean oil, ASA has also been lobbying for allowing imports of soyabean directly into the country. But this, Mr Miedema admitted, would not be an easy task given that the Government has so far only cleared the commercialisation of a single GM crop, namely Bt cotton. Allowing imports of soyabean — around 55 per cent of the 80 million tonnes of bean produced in the US is genetically engineered for herbicide resistance characteristics — is therefore ruled out as of now.

Incidentally, Pakistan has already imported 1.65 lakh tonnes of soyabean from the US (mostly GM) since October 2001 under the latter's `concessional programme' under Section 416 B of its Agricultural Act. This Section permits the Federal Government to buy up surplus produce of any crop, which is then given to developing countries under the concessional programme.

``We have delivered the soyabean to the Trading Corporation of Pakistan, which has been auctioning it to local solvent extraction units there'', he stated.

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