The Food Standards Agency (FSA) will have to defend its handling of the GM rice contamination issue at the High Court in February.
Mr Justice Crane met representatives of Friends of the Earth (FoE) and the FSA earlier this week to determine the urgency of FoE’s case against the FSA.
A two day hearing on February 20 and 21 has now been set, said FoE GM campaigner Clare Oxborrow.
The move follows FoE’s application for a judicial review of the FSA’s approach to the discovery of GM rice from the US, which is not approved for sale in Europe.
FoE head of legal, Phil Michaels said: “The High Court has recognised that this is a serious case which requires a full hearing. Rather than seeking to avoid responsibility, the FSA should instead be taking steps to comply with the law and to make sure that proper testing and analysis is carried out so that consumers are not exposed to illegal GM rice.”
Earlier this month, the FSA revealed that just under 10% of samples collected in UK rice mills in September were contaminated with illegal GM rice.
FoE claimed that the FSA had: failed to take actions necessary to comply with the requirements of the European Commission (EC) ‘Emergency Decision’ to test rice already on the market in the UK; had failed to ensure that local authorities investigate or take enforcement action; and had “encouraged food businesses to carry on as normal and not to test their rice for contamination or withdraw product”. The FSA rejected the allegations, adding: “Our actions have been appropriate and proportionate.”
It added: “Since an EC decision was adopted on August 23, all imports of long grain rice from the US have been certified to be free of the unauthorised GM material before being allowed to enter the EU.
“As an additional precaution, new rules are being brought into force to ensure that imports of US are also retested at the point of entry into the EU.”
On Friday (November 24), the United States Department of Agriculture announced that a thorough review of scientific evidence led it to conclude that the rice strain at the heart of the scandal - the genetically engineered LL RICE 601 from Bayer Crop Sciences - was "as safe as its traditionally bred counterparts".
LLRICE601 is one of a number of GM rice strains developed by Bayer engineered to tolerate the herbicide glufosinate ammonium.