Japanese officials are recalling a brand of snacks they say contain potatoes that were genetically modified by Monsanto Co. and are not approved for sale in Japan. But the finding has puzzled Monsanto representatives. The variety of potato said to be in the snacks was fairly rare last year and is no longer sold.

"There's no question of safety," said Loren Wassell, a Monsanto spokesman. "But we'll certainly fully support the food industry and cooperate with the (Japanese) government to determine the facts."

Earlier this week Japanese officials said they had detected material from New Leaf Plus potatoes, grown from seed modified under a Monsanto license to resist both the Colorado potato beetle and potato leaf roll virus.

New Leaf potatoes, which have a Monsanto-developed trait that protects only against the beetle, are approved for food use in Japan, but not New Leaf Plus. Both have been approved for food in the United States - New Leaf in 1985 and New Leaf Plus in 1998.

The Plus variety accounted for only a few thousand acres among the 2 million acres planted in potatoes in the United States last year, Wassell said.

Monsanto announced last year it would get out of research and marketing of potatoes.

A Japanese law took effect in April requiring food with genetically modified material to be labeled. The variety was found by government inspectors in random testing in the market place.

House Food Corp., a major Japanese food maker, announced the recall to customers in newspaper ads on Friday.

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