White House discusses GM food scare

The Clinton administration has called a meeting of its top food policy advisors to discuss concerns that genetically contaminated corn may be exported to Japan.

According to a Japanese consumer's group, traces of the contaminated grain have been found in locally manufactured baking products.

The modified grain -- which is embedded with a pesticide -- has not been approved for human consumption.

Japan has asked the United States for assurances that its grain exports are free of genetic contaminants. Last month supermarkets in the United States withdrew millions of packets of fast foods from sale after it was discovered that they had been contaminated with the genetically modified grain.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service