Pressure To Label Products From GM Fed Animals
UK - Following a move by the world’s second largest supermarket, Carrefour, to label foods derived from animals fed a non-GM diet the Soil Association has written to Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose to put pressure on them to do the same so UK consumers can make the choice if they want to avoid GM.
15 November 2010
2 minute read
Although many of these chains have banned GM ingredients from their own-label products this ban on GM does not extend to the feed given to their livestock. Nearly all the non-organic milk, dairy products and pork in UK supermarkets are being produced from animals fed on GM crops, which means most consumers are unwittingly eating food produced from GM crops everyday.
The French supermarket chain will use a green logo which reads ‘Nourri sans OGM’ or ‘Reared without GM’ which relates to about 300 products including eggs, poultry, pork, and farmed fish and will be extended to milk and dairy products.
Carrefour made a decision to use the logo after research revealed that 96 per cent of consumers backed honest labeling and 63 per cent would stop eating products from animals reared on GM feed.
Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director, said:
“This has long been a gaping hole in the non-GM policies of all UK multiple retailers. What is worse, there has been a complete lack of openness and honesty with customers. There is clear evidence that this misleads consumers into thinking that no GM crops are involved in the food chain in the UK.
“It is no longer credible for UK supermarkets and food companies to claim that non-GM animal feed is not available, if the world's second largest multiple retailer is demonstrating that it is.”
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