Greenpeace says genetically modified rice was fed to 24 children in Hunan province, China, aged between six and eight years old.
The rice , potentially dangerous was not tested on animals.
CHANGSHA — Authorities are continuing to investigate whether dozens of children in central China were used as test subjects in a U.S.-China joint research project that included genetically modified (GM) rice, the China Daily reveals.
Pic; Rocket News
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) said in an online statement that its researcher was not informed that the American side had used GM rice in the joint test, which was designed to study how children’s bodies absorb and transform beta carotene.
Sources in the health department of Hunan Province, where the test allegedly took place in 2008, on Wednesday said “relevant officials” had gone to Beijing to participate in a joint investigation with the China CDC.
This came after local government officials in Hunan and the provincial CDC had publicly denied the claim. But a lead author of the research paper, published in the August edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, insisted that the study had been conducted with all regulatory approvals required by each country.
The paper claimed that Golden Rice, genetically engineered to be rich in beta carotene, is effective in providing vitamin A to children. The experiment involved feeding the rice to 24 children aged between six and eight years old in Hunan in 2008, according to Greenpeace, which broke the news in late August.
The paper’s lead author is Tang Guangwen, director of the Carotenoids and Health Laboratory of Tufts University in the United States. While Tang insisted the testing had been approved, both the second and third author — Hu Yuming with the Hunan CDC and Yin Shi’an with the China CDC — denied involvement in the GM rice research project.
The two toed the line of Hunan authorities, which on Sunday said the China CDC had conducted tests on children in the province in 2008, but these tests were meant to study children’s bodies transformation of beta carotene in vegetables to vitamin A, and did not include GM food.
“I am totally clueless,” Hu told reporters.
“I am aware of the vegetable and beta carotene transformation parts of the paper but know nothing about the part involving Golden Rice,” Yin added.
The China CDC statement said the American project was signed by Tufts University and Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences and was led by Tang.
Yin, who led a project approved by the China CDC on the transformation of beta carotene, combined his on-site tests with that of Tang, as both covered studies on beta carotene in spinach, the statement said.
But the statement cited Yin as saying he did not know whether Golden Rice had been involved in the American study.
GM food is controversial, as there is still no consensus on whether or not it is harmful to the human body.
According to the Greenpeace website, it is simply not known whether genetically engineered crops are safe for human or animal consumption. Independent scientific studies on the matter are severely lacking, it said.
“Children and infants are particularly sensitive to any possible health effects of genetically engineered rice,” it added.
“Absolutely disgusting!” said a comment posted under the Greenpeace article. “As a mother, I am outraged!”
The Chinese government introduced a regulation as early as 2001 to ensure the safety of GM food, with strict provisions for researching, testing, producing and marketing such products.
According to the regulation, parties conducting GM agricultural experiments should have certain qualifications and form a panel to be in charge of the safety of the experiments.
It also provides that any China-foreign GM agricultural experiment should be approved by the government’s agricultural departments.
An official with the Hunan provincial government’s agricultural bureau in charge of GM-related issues said the office did not receive any application for a GM food experiment and did not give any approval.
“Only after we know about the truth of this experiment can we talk food safety,” Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post wrote in a commentary. “The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture need to disclose the truth.”

Below is the article that appeared on Greenpeace website titled  Chinese children used in US-backed GE food trial
How would you feel if I told you that a group of scientists had come to the United States, and fed a group of 24 children aged between six and eight years of age a potentially dangerous product that had yet to be tested on animals?
What if I told you that state authorities had come out publically with clear directives against this very experiment, and yet the experiment had continued regardless?
You’d be pretty outraged, right?
Well, this is what we believe is happening, EXCEPT that it is happening on Chinese soil and on Chinese children (and I hope you’ve managed to maintain that outrage.)
We discovered this in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that published a study backed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and that involved feeding genetically engineered (GE) Golden Rice to a group of 24 boys and girls in Hunan province, China, aged between six and eight years old.
It was actually back in 2008 that we first heard of this experiment and immediately informed the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry came back and assured us no Golden Rice had been imported and the trial had been stopped – something that unfortunately appears not to be the case.
Gambling with the health of these 24 children isn’t the only travesty here. From the bigger picture we’re also seeing a huge amount of time, energy and talent being wasted on what is essentially yet another example of big business hustling in of one the world’s most sacred things: our food supply.
The study hopes to propose that this genetically engineered rice is a solution to vitamin A deficiency among malnourished child populations. Fact is, we don’t need this “silver bullet” rice, because: (1) we have a solution – it’s called overcoming poverty and accessing a more diverse diet; and (2) like so many silver bullets it’s going to cause more trouble and potential harm than existing solutions.
Here are some of the big “cons” behind this so-called magic rice, according to our food and agriculture team:
By promoting GE rice you encourage a diet based on one staple rather than an increase in access to the many vitamin-rich food plants. These plants would address a wide variety of micronutrient deficiencies, not just vitamin A deficiency (VAD).
We simply do not know if GE crops, including GE rice, are safe for human or animal consumption. GE crops certainly have the potential to cause allergenic reactions.
The majority of patents for genetically engineered plants are held by a few large multinational companies. So it’s in their financial interest – and not ours, the public – to get us hooked on their seed.
After 20 years of development, this not so-Golden Rice is still just a shadowy research project with no applications for commercialization anywhere in the world. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent on what is a smoke and mirrors product, and that could have been better spent on programs that have actually proven to make a lasting and meaningful difference: programs that combine supplementation with home gardening in order to give the poverty-stricken access to a more diverse diet (something that has been successful in Bangladesh).
The battle to keep GE rice out of China has been a long, seven year struggle, and clearly it’s not over yet.