DELHAIZE RECALLS ITS PRIVATE-LABEL TORTILLA CHIPS

BARBARA MURRAY

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Delhaize America chains Kash n' Karry and Food Lion here have removed private-label corn tortilla chips made by Wise Foods from their shelves due to questions that the product may have contained unapproved StarLink transgenic corn.

The chains pulled the 11-ounce bags of chips on July 3, according to Ruth Kinzey, the newly appointed director of corporate communications for Food Lion and its 140-store sister chain.

Meanwhile, tests on the product showed that it did not in fact contain any of the suspect corn, Wise Foods' spokesman David Lilly told SN. Earlier this month, however, he said the Food and Drug Administration found traces of StarLink DNA, but not the potential allergen protein, in the white corn private-label chips made for the Kash n' Karry chain. "We have shared our results with the FDA, and are quite comfortable that everything we have manufactured is of the highest quality," Lilly said.

StarLink, a yellow corn variety engineered to repel pests, is not allowed by federal regulators in human food because of potential allergic reactions. However, a science advisory panel to the Environmental Protection Agency is meeting this month to discuss whether small amounts of StarLink can be safely permitted in human food.

The recent FDA discovery marks the first time StarLink has been detected in white corn. Lilly said he could not speculate on why the tests yielded different results.