New Delhi: For the second time in five months, India has refused permission to a US food consignment suspecting it may contain genetically modified Soya corn blend.

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) while denying permission at its meeting in New Delhi on March 6 said the concerned agencies had "failed to submit an authenticated certificate that the consignment containing Soya corn blend as food aid under ICDS programme does not contain the Starlink corn," a variety of corn banned for human consumption.

At the meeting, presentations were made by CARE, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and US officials for the GEAC to consider issues like procedure for approval of GM crops in US, varieties of GM corn and Soya approved for human and animal consumption in US.

The US officials' point was that certification was against the country's policy of not differentiating between GM and non-GM crops.

Quoting newspaper reports, the committee said, "Starlink corn surfaced in the shipment to Japan from US, serious apprehensions were expressed about the possibility of such incidence recurring in the shipment to India."

The GEAC, which met after a gap of four months had refused permission for the import of Soya corn blend which may contain GM corn last November.

CARE and CRS had initially applied for permission to import a total of 23,000 metric tonnes of Soya corn blend, to be channelled into government aid programmes.

PTI