France's Auchan Joins Drive To Weed Out GM Foods
Saturday March 20 12:36 AM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - French retailers say they have led the way in the drive among European supermarkets to root out genetically modified foods from among their own-brand products.
Spurred on by a fresh wave of consumer concern, family-owned Auchan Friday added its name to a list of European retailers who are outlawing genetic engineering in their own-brand food.
Both Auchan and rival Carrefour say a policy of eradicating GM ingredients from their own products, as heralded by Britain's J. Sainsbury Plc this week, has been in place in their supply chains for over a year.
''For 18 months Auchan has worked with the manufacturers of its own-brand products and raw materials suppliers in order to eliminate, product by product, any risk of the presence of GMOs (genetically modified organisms),'' Auchan said in a statement.
It said 44 out of its 1,460 products had been identified as possibly containing modified soya protein or maize. Of those, Auchan could guarantee 43 were GMO-free, while the 44th -- a frozen mincemeat product -- would be GMO-free from April.
Sainsbury's said this week it had set up a consortium with six other European supermarkets to work from the farming stage to ensure no GM ingredients make it into their own-label foods.
Carrefour, one of the seven, said it was already able to mark its own-label products as GMO-free after it started weeding out such ingredients last year.
''We have had conversations with Sainsbury's but for us this policy of precaution is not new,'' a Carrefour spokesman said.
''Since we don't know the long-term effects of GM foods we took a decision last year to offer the choice. We examined all our own products and stopped selling those we had doubts about.''
Investigations, using a supply network set up in 1992 to allow traceability back to the farmer's field, led to nine of Carrefour's 1,783 products being taken off the shelves. Another 286 products had alternative ingredients substituted for the possible GMOs.
Under European Union law GM soya and other crops must be clearly shown on food labels but derivatives like oil need not.
The rush to slap ''GM-free'' labels on food products comes in response to a swell of public skepticism, especially in Britain where newspapers have dubbed GM products ''Frankenstein foods.''
''The problem with GMOs is that on the one hand (producers) guarantee they are harmless and on the other hand they wrap them up in mystery by refusing generalized labeling,'' said French consumers group UFC.
''Consumers are well aware there is no such thing as zero risk but they want assurances that the commercialization of GM foods comes with maximum precautions.''
Carrefour said it had tried not to fan the issue by removing its GM products quietly.
''There's a general awareness in the wake of mad cow disease -- everybody realizes we need to be careful,'' the spokesman said.
''We have to provide the right to choose non-GM foods but at the same time we take great care not to scare consumers.''
skepticism, especially in Britain where newspapers have dubbed GM products ''Frankenstein foods.''
''The problem with GMOs is that on the one hand (producers) guarantee they are harmless and on the other hand they wrap them up in mystery by refusing generalized labeling,'' said French consumers group UFC.
''Consumers are well aware there is no such thing as zero risk but they want assurances that the commercialization of GM foods comes with maximum precautions.''
Carrefour said it had tried not to fan the issue by removing its GM products quietly.
''There's a general awareness in the wake of mad cow disease -- everybody realizes we need to be careful,'' the spokesman said.
''We have to provide the right to choose non-GM foods but at the same time we take great care not to scare consumers.''
dailynews.yahoo.com
|
