Brussels - The EU ended its controversial ban on new genetically modified (GM) foods yesterday, allowing imports of tinned maize without touching the more contentious issue of new GM organism (GMO) crops.
In the EU's first approval in more than five years, its executive arm authorised imports of a maize known as Bt11, marketed by Swiss agrochemicals giant Syngenta, for sale as tinned sweet corn in supermarkets across the bloc.
"GM sweet corn has been subjected to the most rigorous premarketing assessment in the world," said EU health and consumer protection commissioner David Byrne.
Bt11 maize imports are now authorised for 10 years.
"It has been scientifically assessed as being as safe as any conventional maize," Byrne said. "Food safety is therefore not an issue, it is a question of consumer choice."
The European Commission's decision follows months of deadlock between member states and flies in the face of European opinion, where consumers are largely hostile to biotech foods with opposition rated at more than 70 percent.
Supermarkets and food manufacturers have responded to this and still tend to avoid stocking produce that contains GMOs.
Although the EU decision confounds the hopes of GMO-sceptic states such as Austria and Denmark, it should delight some of the EU's top trading partners such as the US, which has challenged the bloc's ban at the World Trade Organisation.
It also comes at a time when the world's biotech giants are facing their own problems over the controversial technology.
Last week, US biotech giant Monsanto shelved its launch of the world's first GMO wheat.
Just days later, it filed a lawsuit against rival Syngenta claiming a violation of its patent on a technique producing a popular type of GMO maize.
But the real battle for EU biotech policy, diplomats say, is when the bloc gives a green light to plant live GMO crops. That will be the acid test of whether the moratorium is really over.
Syngenta hailed the EU move, saying the firm had always insisted its product was safe.
"It has no financial impact," a Syngenta spokesperson said. "It is a step in the right direction but in the end the consumer will decide. That will take some time."
"It is to be expected as it was based on all the right science."
However, environmental groups - which have long campaigned for EU member states to keep the bloc's de facto moratorium in place - were outraged by the commission's decision.
"The European Commission is supposed to represent the interests of European citizens and the environment, but has chosen in this case to defend US farmers and narrow agrobusiness interests," said Eric Gall, GMO political adviser for lobby group Greenpeace's European policy unit.
"The union condemns the politicians who, relying on the internal mechanisms of the executive and the commission, allow the College of Commissioners to take their place and in doing so discharge themselves of their responsibilities," said France's Confederation Paysanne farmers' union.
"The European Commission is gambling with the health of consumers," said Friends of the Earth campaigner Adrian Bebb. "Member states remain divided over the long-term safety of this GM sweet corn, yet the commission wants to force it down our throats."
The EU's member states were deadlocked for months over whether to approve Bt11. Under the bloc's complex decision-making process, the commission had the power to rubber-stamp the authorisation.
Before the Bt11 approval, the EU's last authorisation for a GMO product was in October 1998 for a type of carnation.