GM foods need better labelling
The Guardian Leader
Tuesday September 1, 1998
>From today, European laws will insist that food manufacturers clearly label
products containing genetically modified, or GM foods. This is an important
step in boosting consumer confidence in these novel foods which may in time
dominate global diets, and the Government should be credited for pushing
the legislation through after years of weak proposals being tossed
backwards and forwards in Brussels. Despite massive corporate PR campaigns
and the blandishments of scientists that these foods pose no risk whatever,
European consumers continue to resist for quite reasonable environmental,
health, even religious reasons.
But the consumer should not feel reassured at the new GM labelling regime.
It is a curate's egg, designed by European governments to not inconvenience
the powerful food barons and landowners, while at the same time recognising
that there is much public disquiet. As always in this political climate, it
seems that corporate interests have triumphed and the consumer has been
fobbed off. The new labels will appear in minute type on very few products
and most people will assume that food not labelled as containing GM foods
will be GM-free. In fact, GM soya and maize, and GM lecithins, or
thickeners, may already be used in more than 60 per cent of all processed
or packaged foods, but these may escape the new labelling laws because the
manufacturing process can render them unidentifiable.
Fairly or not, Britain is widely seen to be one of the Europe's least
trustworthy food producers and barely a month passes without another scare
or more grisly revelations about how our animals are treated or how our
food is produced. It is small wonder that people are turning vegetarian or
to organics. Genetically modified foods are only the latest step in the
industrialisation of our food system and its monopolisation by the very
few. They have been launched into Europe in haste and we must not repent
them in leisure. The Iceland foodstore chain, the Vegetarian Society,
organic food producers and others are proving it is possible, with
determination and at not a little cost, to create GM-free supply chains.
There is no reason why the big four supermarket chains and food processors
should not follow suit. They should at least be honest, step beyond the new
rules and require full labelling until better scientific testing is
devised. Nothing else will reassure the battered and confused consumer, or
more restore worldwide confidence in Britain's tarnished food reputation.
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Genetic label 'con to trick customers'
EU measures exempt foods containing soya oil
By Sarah Hall
The Guardian (London) Tuesday September 1, 1998
New measures forcing food manufacturers to label genetically modified
ingredients come into force today amid fears they are a "con" to trick
consumers.
A European Union directive requires companies to show if genetically
modified (GM) soya and maize are used in their food stuffs. But the
regulation exempts foods which contain soya oil or other soya derivatives,
such as the thickening agent lecithin - which account for up to 90 per
cent of soya products.
Environmental and consumer rights campaigners attacked the loophole, which
could mean most processed foods contain undisclosed GM derivatives in the
future.
More than 60 per cent of processed foods contain soya - from sausage skins
to hypo-allergenic milk, bread to chocolate, diet to baby foods - and more
than half the soya in British products is expected to be genetically
modified within two years.
The Friends of the Earth food campaigner, Adrian Bebb, said: "Shoppers are
being conned by politicians into believing that this labelling will help
them avoid genetically altered food. It won't.
"The majority of foods containing soya are in forms which are not covered
by this directive, they won't be labelled and so the consumer will still
not know if they contain genetically modified ingredients."
He added: "The Government have said only 1,400 products will be labelled
but there are thousands on supermarket shelves, so you can see this will
have little effect. It's being claimed as a great victory for consumers
when clearly it's not."
Jim Thomas, genetics campaigner at Greenpeace UK, called for a ban on all
GM food, and said: "This is just going to confuse the consumer. People have
said they want clear labelling on genetically modified products but with
this regulation they are not going to get that."
Julie Sheppard, of the Consumers' Association, added: "Consumers will still
be in the dark about whether or not many foods they are eating contain
genetically modified ingredients. And there is the risk they will wrongly
infer unlabelled foods do not contain products from genetically modified
sources."
The loophole exists since the directive stipulates labelling is only
required when protein or DNA from the genetically modified ingredient can
be detected in the finished product. Because of the way in which they are
processed, soya oils, fats and lecithins are not picked up by current
testing methods.
The Department of Health said such ingredients were so highly refined, they
were no longer deemed to be genetically modified. Such products had been
cleared by the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, an
independent body of scientific advisors, as being safe.
"The bottom line is, if something has genetically modified soya or maize in
it it's going to have to be labelled," said a spokeswoman.
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THE INDEPENDENT, London, August 31, 1998
Label laws leave out soya foods
A compulsory labelling scheme for genetically
modified (GM) food being introduced tomorrow
will not give consumers the information they need,
it was claimed yesterday.
Friends of the Earth campaigners said the
regulations being implemented across Europe
would con the public because they allow too
many exemptions.
The British government acclaimed the new rules a
victory for the consumer. But Adrian Bebb, food
campaigner at FoE, said yesterday that the
majority of products containing genetically
modified ingredients would not be labelled.
The exemptions include any foods that contain
soya oil or other soya derivatives such as lecithin,
even though they may have come from genetically
engineered soya beans. More than 60 per cent of
processed foods, including bread and baby food,
contain soya, Mr Bebb said.
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distributed without profit to those who expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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