Milling & Baking News - February 8, 2011 - 34

Industry Activities 

Millers fear StarLink sequel if Syngenta’s Enogen deregulated
WASHINGTON — A conﬂict over a petition to deregulate the ﬁrst corn trait with a bioengineered output trait came to a head last week with the North American Millers’ Association asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture not to take action on the petition. At issue was a petition by Syngenta Seeds, Inc., Minnetonka, Minn., to deregulate Alpha Amylase Corn Event 3272, known as corn amylase and marketed under the Enogen brand. The corn, which contains the enzyme amylase, is expected to be valuable to the ethanol industry because it lowers the cost of converting corn starch into ethanol. The milling industry concern ﬁrst emerged following an April 2010 meeting with Syngenta executives. While the corn is not intended to enter the U.S. food supply, the millers were seeking assurances that the adventitious presence of corn amylase would not affect food quality adversely. Since then, the industry has conducted independent research that has reinforced its concerns about the potential impact if corn amylase were to enter the food supply. According to NAMA, a presentation by Syngenta at the April meeting indicated a signiﬁcant negative impact on food product quality and performance at a very low presence (one kernel in 10,000). “Syngenta did not share any documents or data with us after the meeting,” NAMA said in a June 26 letter to Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack. “We offered that if our interpretation of the data was in error, we would correct it when presented with additional information. We shared these concerns with Undersecretary Avalos in a May meeting, with you in a June letter, with Deputy Undersecretary Wright in a July meeting and with a larger group of stakeholders in an August meeting sponsored by U.S.D.A.” The millers noted that the data were not provided to NAMA when requested at a subsequent meeting convened in December by Ann Wright as Deputy Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. “Our scientists were not able to resolve their concerns over the impact on functionality since no scientiﬁc data were available for review,” NAMA said. R. Don Sullins, vice-president of
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technical service at ADM Milling Co. and a member of the NAMA technical committee, said the issue is a signiﬁcant one for the milling industry, not because it has an impact on the milling process but on the product millers ship to their customers. “We love biotech, but they have asked the U.S.D.A. to deregulate this event, meaning they can plant it anywhere,” he said. “If it is regulated, they have to account for every seed that is planted or harvested. Our current position is that we don’t want it deregulated until enough scientiﬁc data have been developed to assure that milled corn and ﬁnished products will not be adversely affected by the adventitious presence of C.A. Event 3272.” The corn milling industry’s sensitivity over the issue is heightened

by memories of StarLink, a bioengineered corn variety found in small levels in the food supply even though it had not been approved for food use. Millers had to bear the expense of testing corn for the presence of StarLink for several years. Dr. Sullins, who spent 10 years doing technical and analytical work at Frito-Lay before joining ADM, said food safety is not a concern with corn amylase. Instead, the milling industry is worried tortilla, corn chip and breakfast cereal manufacturers will experience problems if corn amylase is present in even small amounts. He expressed concern the corn chip manufacturing process could present “perfect conditions for (corn amylase) enzyme to start breaking down the corn starch.” “They won’t be able to make corn chips,” he said. He also expressed concern about makers of breading and batters. “Will it change the viscosity?” he asked. “We need to see the data.”

An executive from a major snack foods company afﬁrmed Dr. Sullins concerns. “I’m not against output traits, but show us data that this will not hurt our output,” the executive said. “The entire corn dry milling industry and food industry is concerned, not because it’s a G.M.O. “If the data Syngenta is presenting are correct, that at very low levels of admixture it would render the corn not usable, then we have a major problem. “The strategy Syngenta has presented is that they will use isolation techniques in the country. How many times have we seen that not work? It wasn’t just StarLink. There have been pharma examples as well. “We’re concerned. I’m not saying it’s going to be a failure, but we need evidence.” Adding to the drama of the confrontation over corn amylase were documents from Syngenta posted recently on the web site of the U.S.D.A.’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The documents featured analysis by Will J. Duensing, a retired corn miller who had been active in milling industry affairs for several years. “C.A. (corn amylase) is unlikely to have any measureable effect on most corn dry milling processes and milled product applications,” Mr. Duensing said in a document dated October 2010 but posted only on Jan. 20. “The C.A. enzyme is designed to work most efﬁciently and effectively under a very speciﬁc range of temperature, moisture and pH conditions. The conditions that are prevalent in dry milling and most product applications are not favorable to enzyme activity.” NAMA countered though, that a brief review of the documents shows “that they conﬁrm our food scientists concerns on functionality.” Wayne Moore, a cereal chemist engaged by NAMA to evaluate the Syngenta research ﬁndings, challenged much of the report’s analysis and emphasized the risk to food processors in the event of even a small contamination of corn supplies with corn amylase. “In the likelihood that Event 3272 is diverted into conventional food applications, the results could have major detrimental impacts,” Dr. Moore said in a report submitted to the U.S.D.A. Feb. 1. “The December 7, 2010, Syngenta report clearly described the viscosity-reducing properties of this grain and its negative impact on corn-based foods.” Dr. Moore, who received his Ph.D. in
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Milling & Baking News - February 8, 2011

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