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Restaurants and cafes to label GM ingredients
31 January 1999
All restaurant and cafe menus will have to label any food item containing GM ingredients under an EU labelling Regulation it was revealed today. The move, which was confirmed today by Agriculture Secretary Nick Brown on the Dimbleby Programme, is likely to be enforced in a few weeks time. Friends of the Earth has been told that the Regulation will apply to all food outlets “from the Savoy Grill to the chip van on the A34”.
Tracking genetically modified ingredients is likely to prove difficult. Last week Friends of the Earth revealed that almost one third of the 200 food items analysed by Worcestershire Scientific Services contained GM soya or maize. Only one item mentioned the fact on the label, and a number of manufacturers claimed that they believed their products to be GM-free.
Pete Riley, Food Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:
“All food outlets will be forced to go to enormous trouble and expense because of the greed of the big biotech companies who are forcing their unwanted GM food onto the British people. The Government shouldn't allow this ridiculous situation to happen. Rather than pushing ahead with this expensive and inadequate labelling scheme, the Government should ban GM ingredients for at least five years.”
Last month 19 of the UK's top 23 resturants (as listed in the Good Good guide 1999)backed Friends of Earth's campaign for a five year ban on GM food and crops.
FOE has been highly critical of the EU GM labelling law. Despite its intention of informing customers about the precence of GM ingredients, a number of loopholes mean that certain ingredients - for example GM oil and lecithin - do not have to be labelled.
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jul 2008
