China Discovers Genetically-Modified Ingredients from Rapeseed ImportsThe Shanghai Administration of Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine has announced that it has discovered trans-genetic ingredients from a batch of rapeseed imports from Canada, the first of such cases found in China.Earlier last year, the Shanghai Quarantine Bureau was the first quarantine bureau to report tests of biotech ingredients from rice imports. As the safety of genetically modified crops is controversial, biotech products should be labeled according to international treaties. Shanghai Customs handles one million tons of rapeseed imports annually. None of them is labeled. The administration said that in addition to improving its own test measures on genetically altered crop imports, it will ask foreign producers to voluntarily label their biotech crops exports. Chen Jiahua, an expert with the administration, said that it requires fairly high technology to screen rapeseeds that contain genetically modified ingredients, because it is difficult to abstract clear DNAs for analysis from the oil-bearing crop. The detected ingredients in the batch of rapeseed imports include pat and bar, barbase and barstar, he said. The expert added that the acreage of biotech crops has increased to 40 million ha. from 2 million ha. in 1996 worldwide with 99 percent of the acreage in America, Argentina and Canada. Nearly half of the main crop exports such as soybean and corn from these three countries are genetically engineered. The Shanghai quarantine bureau has set up an special group of experts to test biotech ingredients. |
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