Greenpeace food safety patrols yesterday helped an organic farmer remove all genetically engineered (GE) papayas growing in his field and prevented further GE contamination by these plants. The seedlings of his GE papaya were distributed by the Hong Kong Government last year and some of the unsafe fruits have already been sold in the market.

Because of food safety reasons, this species was not approved anywhere of the world.

Greenpeace urged the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau of Hong Kong to implement the Biosafety Protocol now and stop these unsafe GMOs from threatening human health.

Knowing recently that the Hong Kong Government distributed GE papaya seedlings to local farmers, including organic farmers, Greenpeace said their food safety patrols immediately visited the related fields and collected fruit and leaf samples for laboratory testing. Results showed that GE ingredients were found. The origin, detailed DNA sequence and the characteristics of the engineered gene are still unknown.

This unknown GE papaya is not approved for commercialisation anywhere of the world and did not pass any long-term safety assessments. There are potential health risks by human consumption.

Last year local farmers received the papaya seedlings from the Hong Kong Government and started planting in their farms. Some papaya fruits were harvested and sold in the market. In December 2005 and early 2006, some farmers received a letter from the Government notifying them that the papayas they were planting were "very probably GE".

Investigations by Greenpeace showed that there are at least 100 suspected GE papaya trees located in Kam Tin and Fanling, not counting those already removed.

"The Health, Welfare and Food Bureau ignored the potential danger of GE to food safety and spread unsafe GE food to the farms and even the food chain. The Secretary Dr. York Chow Yat-ngok puts Hong Kong citizens' health at risk!" said Fung Ka-keung, food and agriculture campaigner of Greenpeace China.

"The food safety system in Hong Kong would not be such a mess if the Government had implemented strict control and labelling system on GE food," added Fung.

Greenpeace demands that the Government investigates the situation, helps farmers destroy the unknown GE papayas and prevent further GE contamination.

In 1999, Greenpeace started campaigning for strict GE food regulations and mandatory labelling in Hong Kong. The Health, Welfare and Food Bureau is however dragging its feet and rejected Hong Kong citizens' demands for a mandatory labelling system.

The Biosafety Protocol is an international treaty that uses precautionary principle to tackle the potential risks caused by GE. In 2003, the Hong Kong Government announced that the Government would extend the application of Biosafety Protocol to Hong Kong. The Health, Welfare and Food Bureau's failure of preventing GE papaya from contaminating the environment and food chain shows a serious violation of the Protocol.

It was noted that the implementation of Biosafety Protocol and the legislation is currently handled by the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau, led by Dr. Sarah Liao. Dr. York Chow's Health, Welfare and Food Bureau, however, does not involve in the process at all. The legislation proposal is also being criticized for being too loose and not covering food safety issues.