The governments food safety watchdog is facing a legal challenge over allegations that it failed to take sufficient precautions to stop genetically modified rice entering the food chain. The environmental group Friends of the Earth has written to the Food Standards Agency as a first step towards bringing a judicial review after tests revealed GM contamination in two own-brands of rice sold by Morrisons. The supermarket has since withdrawn the brands.

Friends of the Earth sent several samples for tests after it emerged last month that US rice had been contaminated with a GM variety grown in trials by Bayer CropScience between 1998 and 2001. After the incident, the EU introduced emergency measures to stop contaminated rice entering the food chain.

The FSA has drawn up plans to test rice at mills in Britain, but a leaked memo reveals that it has privately told retailers and manufacturers it does not expect them to remove contaminated rice from their shelves or to test for contamination.

The memo urges them to answer queries by stating: "On the currently available evidence, there is no food safety concern." Friends of the Earths lawyer, Phil Michaels, called the response scandalous. A spokeswoman for the FSA said: "Weve never told them not to test, but weve also not required that they do test ... because safety assessments ... do not suggest the rice poses a risk to health."
(By Ian Sample, The Guardian, 18/09/2006)
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