Japan is to ask the United States to explain how genetically modified corn banned in Japan has again been discovered in imports from America, a Health Ministry official said on Thursday, Associated Press reports. Inspectors on Monday found samples of the modified corn, called StarLink, in a corn shipment from the United States. Following the discovery of the genetically modified corn in Japan in October, officials from the two countries agreed in November to jointly test future shipments for presence of genetically modified varieties. Despite this agreement Japanese inspectors found samples of StarLink this week. Japan currently bans genetically modified corn because it has yet to finish assessing the health risks from eating products made from the altered corn. StarLink is approved for animal feed but not human consumption in the United States.
