GM food labelling unreliable says Which Magazine

Of the 32 processed foods Which looked at, containing soya or maize ingredients that weren’t labelled as genetically modified, only eight were guaranteed to be from non-GM sources. The other 24 may contain ingredients produced using gene technology.

The regulations for labelling GM soya and maize ingredients need to be reviewed, says the report. Currently, they don’t go far enough to allow consumers to make informed choices about food produced using GM technology.

“Labelling is not an end in itself, though. Consumers can only make the choice to avoid food produced using GM technology if there are genuine non-GM alternatives available. For this to be possible, GM and non-GM crops must be kept separate and traceable at each stage from seed through to the final food product”, says the report.

“There must be adequate safeguards and controls over GM food, including the long-term monitoring of crops. Until the approval system addresses concerns about the long-term safety of genetically-modified foods, no more genetically-modified products should go on the market,” it says.