Feds: Starlink In White Corn Chips

Food Lion and Kash n' Karry grocery chains pulled their store brand white corn tortilla chips from shelves in response to concerns raised by the Food and Drug Administration about StarLink genetically modified corn used in the chips.

The recall marks the first time the FDA has identified a white corn product as containing StarLink. Detection of the yellow variety of the corn prompted widespread recalls last fall of tortillas, taco shells and other products that contained it.

Aventis CropSciences genetically engineered StarLink to contain a pesticide protein. The corn has been approved for animal feed but not for human consumption due to concern that the protein might cause allergic reactions.

Lawrence Bachorik, a spokesman for the FDA, said the agency contacted Kash n' Karry on June 26 to alert it that tests it ran on the chain's brand chips that expired on May 23 contained genetic material from StarLink but not the protein itself. Kash n' Karry pulled the chips on June 26. Food Lion pulled theirs on Tuesday. Bachorik said the agency is continuing to monitor the situation.

Wise Chips, the manufacturer of the chips, has also been contacted by the FDA.

Kinzey said the FDA has not issued a recall and has not contacted Food Lion about the StarLink white corn. Both chains, which are owned by the Delhaize Group, have decided to pull the brand of white corn chips indefinitely. The Delhaize Group has notified food chains it owns in Belgium, Greece and the Czech Republic.

Following the recall of StarLink yellow corn products last fall, many tortilla makers switched to white corn, which represents only a small fraction of the American corn market.

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