Ban call over GM rice traces.

ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners yesterday called for the Government to ban long-grain rice imports from the US, after it was revealed that trace amounts of a genetically modified strain not approved for consumption had been found in samples in America.

The genetically engineered rice, called LLRICE 601, was developed by German company Bayer Crop Science to resist a type of weedkiller.

Last week the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that trace amounts of LLRICE 601 had been found by Bayer in a sample from the 2005 food crop.

Officials said it did not pose a threat.

However, Japan has suspended imports of US long-grain rice, and in Europe Friends of the Earth called for an immediate import ban

The group's GM campaigner, Clare Oxborrow, said: "This is a complete scandal.

"The biotech industry has failed once again to control its products and lax regulations in the US mean that consumers have been put at risk."