www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

The Food Standards Agency has been cleared of allegations that it failed in
its duty to protect consumers from products contaminated by illegally
imported genetically modified rice, February 2007 by Mike Taylor.

Rejecting a claim by environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth, a
judge in the High Court accepted the agency's defence that, although it
failed to act promptly when the GM rice came to light, it then took
immediate steps to remedy the situation.

The GM rice, a long-grain type known as "LL Rice 601", was illegally
imported and distributed within the EU from at least January 2006. The US
authorities notified the EU in August last year, and the EU Commission
issued "Emergency Decisions" guidelines, requiring member states to deal
with the contamination.

The case arose after FoE found that GM rice, grown in trials in the US, had
entered the UK food chain. FoE complained that the FSA had not undertaken
required testing in parts of the market and had not required enforcement
action to be taken by local food authorities under EU food regulations.

Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said the FSA would have been well-advised to issue
a "food alert" to distributors and retailers, but in this instance the
product carried no risk of disease or illness. "In a perfect world, more
would have been done more quickly," the judge said.

He added that FoE had not presented sufficient evidence to justify the
granting of a court declaration that the FSA failed in its duty. "There must
be a margin within which such an agency has to be allowed to make its own
decisions, and to some extent its own mistakes, without legal sanction," the
judge said.

Lawyers for FoE welcomed the judge's comments, and the FSA said it would
"take them on board".

[www.independent.co.uk]