Check your rice is GM free

Contact your supermarket and ask if the rice you've bought is free from GM contamination

Is the rice in your cupboard contaminated with an illegal and potentially dangerous GM variety? With scandals currently surrounding imports of Chinese and US rice products, it;s quite possible. We have already found contaminated rice products from China in UK supermarkets, while Friends of the Earth found samples of Morrisons; American long grain rice laced with an illegal GM variety.

The US problem originates from field trials conducted in 2001, and the Chinese problem is also quite long running. This means that if you have bought Chinese or US rice or rice-based products in the last few years, they may well have been contaminated. If you have these products in your kitchen, contact the supermarket where you bought them - contact details are listed below. Ask if that particular batch (there should be a batch number on the packaging) has been tested and what the results were.

If the batch was contaminated, you are entitled to a full refund as the product is illegal and shouldn't have been sold in the first place. If, as will be the case with most batches, they haven't been tested, you might want to ask for a refund anyway, then ask for the batch to be tested and the results forwarded to you.

Of course, the Food Standards Agency should be doing all this, but their pro-GM stance means they would prefer to cover up contamination scandals and minimise any damage done to the biotech industry. Friends of the Earth are launching a legal challenge but in the meantime, make sure the rice in your cupboard is GM-free by contacting your supermarket now, either by post, phone or email.