‘GM-free’ products pulled from market

Greece - Four products tested positive for traces of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) despite labels claiming they were ‘GM free’, Health Ministry officials confirmed yesterday.

The State Laboratory made the discovery over the past year during a National Control Programme for the Detection of GMO in Food, said GM laboratory testing head, Mary Eleftheriades. The four products – two types of pasta and two soya minces – were subsequently removed from the supermarkets, she said.

The State Lab tests food products that go straight to the consumer or raw materials that end up in the food industry, Eleftheriades told the Cyprus Mail.

The detection programme first began in July 2003, during which 45 products labelled as ‘GM Free’ or containing soya and maize were tested. It ends over the next few days and a second annual screening programme will begin shortly. It is expected to test around 50 products over the next 12 months, she said.

“Foods labelled as GM free must contain no traces of GMOs,” said Eleftheriades. “And foods containing over 0.9 per cent of GM soya or maize must specify so on their label. If we find traces less than that percentage, we ask for clarification and the company must prove that contamination took place without its knowledge,” she said.

In this instance, GM soya was found in products labelled ‘GM Free’.

“The GMOs we found are not a matter of public health, but a matter of labelling. (In other words) you won’t die if you have consumed these products,” she said. According to Eleftheriades the foods were being tested for round-up ready soya and maize BT 176 because they were the most common modifications. They had also been through extensive testing and their use was EU approved.

She added: “Nevertheless, although the EU’s position is that these products are not a public health concern, due to the public reaction to GM foods, the EU has said the consumer has the right to choose whether or not to consume them and has a right to know what foods contain GM products.”

Eleftheriades said using labels such as ‘GM Free’ was a marketing tool to encourage consumers to buy a specific product. “Therefore we have to test these products first because we must protect consumer rights. This includes trusting what is written on a label,” she said.

Eleftheriades said the Health Ministry was not concerned about the four products which tested positive on the market.

“We’re not worried. We have started checking products and soon everyone will comply. In this instance the companies themselves didn’t know they were selling imported products containing GM soya. Up until recently no one was been checked and we have only just started making efforts to apply EU legislation on GMOs that came into force on May 1. It is something new to all of us,” she said.

Article: Cyprus-mail.com