Our new online Shopper's Guide to genetically modified (GM) food shows that despite a consumer backlash, the controversial technology is slipping into our shopping trolleys.
GM is sneaking through the back door via animal feed. This encourages the growing of contaminating GM crops, even though consumers have rejected GM ingredients. Most of the major retailers promised the public they would remove food containing GM ingredients from their shelves, but almost all of them are failing to tackle the GManimal feed issue.
The Shopper's Guide website features a league table of the top ten British supermarkets. Tesco, Morrisons and Iceland are at the bottom of the table. These stores aren't committed to removing GM and can't guarantee their own brand products are not from animals fed on GM.
Marks & Spencer tops the list. M&S fresh meat and eggs are sourced through supply chains which use non-GM feeds. None of the ten can guarantee its own brand milk comes from cows fed on a GM-free diet, but M&S is working towards eliminating GM feed from all its dairy products.
The Shopper's Guide asked each of the top ten food retailers to outline its policy on the use of GM-feed for its own brand animal products. The retailers were marked for their commitment to supply own brand non-GM fed beef, pork, chicken, lamb, fish, eggs and dairy.
All major British supermarkets previously pledged to keep GM foods off their shelves after a consumer backlash. But each year, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of GM maize and soya (used to make animal feed), is shipped to Britain from the USA.
The Shopper's Guide carries a representative sample of the lines stocked by each of the top ten retailers - own brand and otherwise. It lists products in three categories (red, amber and green) according to their GM status.
