The European Commission (EC) has agreed to tougher sanctions to prevent unauthorised genetically modified (GM) rice entering the EU after emergency measures agreed during the summer failed to work.
Instead of relying on a non-GM certificate provided by rice suppliers, all consignments of US long-grain rice must now be sampled and tested at EU entry ports before they can be distributed and sold.
The move followed the discovery by the Dutch authorities that shipments from the US tested positive for unauthorised GM rice, despite carrying non-GM certificates.
No agreement had been reached over a common testing method and many companies were still wrangling over who should bear the cost of the new tests, said Richard Matthews, head of product liability at law firm Eversheds. "Many contracts do not typically specify who should foot the bill in such an event. However, purchasers are arguing that it is the producer's responsibility to supply goods that comply with EU food law and if specific tests are required, the producer should bear the cost."
Lobby group Friends of the Earth (FoE) is still deciding whether to launch legal action against the UK's Food Standards Agency for failing to take appropriate action to ensure that unauthorised GM material remained out of the food chain.
The FoE's GM campaigner, Clare Oxborrow, said the strict new protocol for long-grain rice from the US should be extended to all crops imported into Europe from nations that tested GM crops outdoors. She said: "Rice products imported from China into the UK, France and Germany have already been found to be contaminated, but the EC has so far failed to act."