By By Stephanie Dearing Sep 6, 2010 in World Limburgerhof - Chemical and biotech company BASF has been called to appear in front of the European Commission after a variety of unapproved GE potatoes were found growing with approved GE potatoes in Sweden recently. While approval for the Amadea potato has not yet been granted, something BASF hopes to secure for 2013, BASF found the unapproved potato growing in amongst a field of approved GE potatoes, the Amflora variety. The illegal potatoes were growing in a field in Sweden owned and planted by Plant Science, a subsidiary of BASF. After the European Commission approved the production of Amflora, the GM potato was planted in Germany, the Czech Republic and Sweden. BASF has played down the importance of the discovery of the unapproved Amadea potato, saying in a ".. The level of commingling is less than 0.01%, which translates to 47 Amadea plants among approximately 680,000 Amlora plants. BASF Plant Science removed all Amadea plants from the fields." BASF said the Amadea plants were not processed with the Amflora potatoes. The company also claims it had monitored other fields in Germany and the Czech Republic after it found Amadea growing in its fields in Sweden. The two varieties can be distinguished easily when in bloom. BASF claims no further instances of actively growing Amadea potatoes had been found, however, the discovery of Amadea was made in August, the company claimed. "Obviously there was a blunder which took place. The wrong potato was sent to Sweden." BASF issued its press release after “This is a deplorable lapse in bio-security. Who knows what the effects of growing a largely untested GM crop for months in the open environment will be? The Swedish authorities should order all plants in the contaminated fields destroyed and BASF should test all Amflora fields and destroy all plants where contamination has occurred. Biotech companies have repeatedly mixed up GM with normal seed. They can’t be trusted and contamination seems inevitable. European governments must put a stop to the European Commission authorising new GM crops. This is the only way to prevent contamination of our food and fields.” The organization points to an earlier occurrence of unauthorized GE corn being grown in Germany this year, saying all the corn was destroyed. Last week BASF bills itself as the world's leading chemical company. While BASF has just applied to the European Commission for permission to grow and sell its new GE potato variety, Amadea, the application was submitted at the end of August, reported PhysOrg While approval for the Amadea potato has not yet been granted, something BASF hopes to secure for 2013, BASF found the unapproved potato growing in amongst a field of approved GE potatoes, the Amflora variety. The illegal potatoes were growing in a field in Sweden owned and planted by Plant Science, a subsidiary of BASF.After the European Commission approved the production of Amflora, the GM potato was planted in Germany, the Czech Republic and Sweden.BASF has played down the importance of the discovery of the unapproved Amadea potato, saying in a press release issued Monday that the company had found "extremely small quantities" of the illegal potato variety. BASF addedBASF said the Amadea plants were not processed with the Amflora potatoes. The company also claims it had monitored other fields in Germany and the Czech Republic after it found Amadea growing in its fields in Sweden. The two varieties can be distinguished easily when in bloom. BASF claims no further instances of actively growing Amadea potatoes had been found, however, the discovery of Amadea was made in August, the company claimed. Earthtimes , however, reported that contamination of the fields in Germany and Czech Republic had been found. European Voice reported that the European Commission had summoned BASF to appear, presumably to account for the error. Expatica said an unnamed spokesperson for the European Commission had saidBASF issued its press release after Greenpeace Europe publicized the finding of the unapproved Amadea potatoes over the weekend. Greenpeace Europe was critical of the European Commission for allowing the Amflora potatoes to remain in the field in Sweden, in spite of the contamination of the field with the illegal GM potato. Greenpeace said all the potatoes should be destroyed. Representative Stefanie Hundsdorfer saidThe organization points to an earlier occurrence of unauthorized GE corn being grown in Germany this year, saying all the corn was destroyed. BBC reported that no one knew how the unauthorized corn had been released for sale. The same contaminated seed was also sold to the Irish government, which had planted field trials. The government discovered the corn was contaminated with an illegal GM variety after conducting routine tests reported GM-Free Ireland BASF somehow engineered a variety of potato to produce only starch, calling the potato 'Amflora.' The European Union approved the potato earlier this year, after a twelve year debate and study.Last week BASF enlisted the aid of a high-level German politician, the federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Rainer Brüderle in the first harvest of Amflora potatoes.BASF bills itself as the world's leading chemical company. More about Potatoes, Amadea potatoe, Basf, European commission More news from potatoes amadea potatoe basf european commission