Brussels, Aug 22 - EU authorities plan to act this week to ensure that an unauthorised biotech rice detected in the United States does not enter the bloc's food chain, an official at the European Commission said on Tuesday.
"We are hoping to adopt tomorrow measures that will ensure that this GM (genetically modified) rice will not reach consumers," the official told Reuters, declining to elaborate.
The biotech rice case recalls a similar transatlantic clash over GMO foods last year, when EU experts blocked imports of U.S. maize animal feed and grains unless there was proof they were untainted by an unauthorised GMO.
The European Commission was notified late on Aug. 18 by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns of trace amounts of unauthorised biotech rice detected in long-grain samples that were targeted for commercial use.
On July 31, U.S. agriculture and food safety authorities were notified that testing by Bayer CropScience, a division of Bayer AG, showed the genetically engineered rice -- called LLRICE 601 -- in rice bins in Arkansas and Missouri.
It was the first time that unmarketed genetically engineered rice had been found in rice used in the U.S. commercial market.
Japan, for which the United States is the largest rice exporter, has already suspended imports of U.S. long-grain rice.
EU Commission experts have contacted Bayer and the U.S. authorities for more information about the unauthorised rice strain, with a view to establishing whether it might have found its way into any shipments destined for European markets.
"We've been in touch with them, they're cooperating with us to provide us with answers," the official said.
"What we need to get is what the extent of it is. We have no details about the quantities concerned, the volume, the concentration. That is what we are trying to clarify."
Europe's consumers are known for their scepticism about GMO crops. The biotech industry insists its products are perfectly safe, however, and no different to conventional foods.