Major U.S. Companies Drop GM Foods in Europe. Are South Africans guinea pigs?

Friends of the Earth News Release

Major U.S. Com­pa­nies Drop Genet­i­cally Mod­i­fied Foods in Europe, Cit­ing Con­sumer Fears
Sur­vey Says Kel­logg, Coke, Pepsi, Kraft, Heinz, Oth­ers Add to Grow­ing List of Com­pa­nies Going GE-​Free – but not in South Africa

Wash­ing­ton, DC–Most lead­ing com­pa­nies sup­ply­ing food and drink to Euro­pean con­sumers are turn­ing their backs on genet­i­cally engi­neered (GM) ingre­di­ents and deriv­a­tives, a new sur­vey by Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) today reveals. The survey’s pub­li­ca­tion coin­cides with the launch of a new cam­paign by FoEE groups in twenty-​two coun­tries across Europe call­ing for a halt to the genet­i­cally mod­i­fied organ­ism (GMO) pol­lu­tion of food and the environment.

The sur­vey shows that most of the top food man­u­fac­tur­ers are aware of oppo­si­tion to GMOs through­out Europe and have been forced to take action. The same com­pa­nies in the U.S. and in South Africa how­ever, have yet to take sim­i­lar action.

“It’s only a mat­ter of time before these com­pa­nies are forced to make the same com­mit­ment to con­sumers here at home,” said Larry Bohlen, Safer Food –Safer Farms cam­paign direc­tor for Friends of the Earth, U.S. “If com­pa­nies are feel­ing the heat from 22 Euro­pean nations, wait until they start hear­ing from 50 Amer­i­can states.”

Bohlen noted that leg­is­la­tion to ban or to label genet­i­cally engi­neered foods has been intro­duced in sev­eral states includ­ing Min­nesota, Cal­i­for­nia, Ver­mont and Maine, and just last week, the Boston City Coun­cil voted unan­i­mously in favor of a res­o­lu­tion to ban GM foods until they are labeled and sub­ject to safety testing.

Friends of the Earth con­tacted 21 of the world’s top food and drink com­pa­nies and asked them for their pol­icy on GMO ingre­di­ents and deriv­a­tives in the food they sold in Europe:

* 16 said that they sourced ingre­di­ents from GMO-​free crops. Most indi­cated that their deriv­a­tives were – or would shortly be – from GMO-​free crops as well;* one, Unilever, said it was mov­ing to a new sys­tem in Europe where “hardly any GMO ingre­di­ents will be used”;

* one, Nes­tle, the biggest food man­u­fac­turer in Europe, said it sup­plied food made from GMO-​free crops as far as prac­ti­cally pos­si­ble, where the pub­lic demanded it – but were unable to list in which coun­tries this pol­icy operated.

* three did not reply.

Com­pa­nies that said that they cur­rently source all their ingre­di­ents from GMO-​free crops for the food and drink they sell in Europe, include Pepsi Cola, Coca Cola, Heinz, Mars, Danone, Kel­loggs, Camp­bell Foods, Cad­bury Schweppes and Kraft/​Jacobs/​Suchard. Almost all of these indi­cated that they also use GMO-​free deriv­a­tives. And Europe’s top fast food chain McDonald’s Europe “have asked sup­pli­ers to source non-​GM ingre­di­ents, addi­tives and pro­cess­ing aids.”

Liana Stup­ples, GMO cam­paign coör­di­na­tor for Friends of the Earth Europe said: “This sur­vey shows how food man­u­fac­tur­ers are being forced to lis­ten to Euro­pean con­sumers increas­ingly con­cerned about poten­tial health and envi­ron­men­tal dam­age from GMO food and crops.”

Today, at a Brus­sels press con­fer­ence, Friends of the Earth Europe announced the launch of a new Europe-​wide cam­paign to halt GMO pol­lu­tion. FoEE groups in twenty-​two coun­tries across Europe will aim to safe­guard for the peo­ple of Europe the right to choose GMO-​free food, to grow GMO-​free crops and to pro­tect GMO-​free habitats.

Nes­tle: “In those coun­tries where con­sumers are reluc­tant to accept the use of GM crops as a source for ingre­di­ents, Nes­tle prod­ucts do not con­tain these ingre­di­ents, in as far as prac­ti­cally possible”.

Philip Mor­ris [Kraft, Jacobs, Suchard]: “sourc­ing con­ven­tional, non-​GM soya and maize based ingre­di­ents, includ­ing addi­tives and flavours, con­trolled through a sys­tem of analysis…we also fully rec­og­nize and respect the fact that con­sumer accep­tance of biotech­nol­ogy is lower in Europe than in other parts of the world”.

Unilever: The “sit­u­a­tion in Europe is changing…[Unilever’s new] Euro­pean sourc­ing pol­icy has to take into account the GM sen­si­tiv­i­ties in cer­tain markets…this will mean that [in the whole of Europe] hardly any GM ingre­di­ents will be used.”

Pepsi Cola: “Ingre­di­ents used in our prod­ucts are not derived from genet­i­cally mod­i­fied sources and no GMOs are used in our soft drink man­u­fac­tur­ing process or in those of our ingre­di­ent sup­pli­ers in Europe…we will review and con­sider any new tech­nolo­gies and ingre­di­ents that have been approved by national and inter­na­tional health author­i­ties, and accepted by consumers”

Coca Cola: “… does not use any ingre­di­ents that are genet­i­cally modified”

Dia­geo: Is made up of its drinks busi­ness (no infor­ma­tion on GMO pol­icy) and two food arms: Pills­bury – “None of our brands con­tain any ingre­di­ents derived from genet­i­cally mod­i­fied crops which could fall within the labelling reg­u­la­tions in Europe. Recog­nis­ing con­sumer con­cerns in Europe , we have been pro­gres­sively remov­ing ingre­di­ents and addi­tives that could have been derived from GM crops, wher­ever it is tech­ni­cally feasible…for the last 18 months” and; Burger King -”in rela­tion to the coun­tries in Europe…Burger King has removed GM ingre­di­ents from its menu items”. BK had no infor­ma­tion on derivatives.

Mars: “Prod­ucts do not con­tain ingre­di­ents or addi­tives from GM sources”

Danone: “respect­ing con­sumer con­cerns was a pri­or­ity for Danone there­fore it has decided not to use such ingre­di­ents in its prod­ucts sold in the EU.” Danone told FoEE that this was the same posi­tion for derivatives.

Anheuser-​Busch “For all our beer brands that we either brew in the UK or import into the Euro­pean mar­ket, we use no GM ingre­di­ents. This includes Bud­weiser, Bud Light, Bud Ice (and) Michelob”

Kirin Brew­ery “think about our consumer’s pref­er­ence as a top pri­or­ity. Kirin Beer does not con­tain GM crops”

Heinz : “Where there is poten­tial for GM mate­r­ial to be present, or where ingre­di­ents are derived from soya or maize, we source non-​GM, iden­tity pre­served ingre­di­ents through care­fully audited sup­pli­ers. In addi­tion, inde­pen­dent test­ing is car­ried out. We con­tinue to take every pos­si­ble step to ensure that Heinz vari­eties remain free of ingre­di­ents derived from GM crops…we are also review­ing all ingre­di­ents in respect of GM-​derived enzymes, and are already review­ing the use of GM ani­mal feed”

Asashi Brew­eries: Asashi Beer Europe Ltd is “GMO-​free”

Camp­bell Foods: “We respect the present con­cerns of con­sumers”. Campbell’s told FoEE that all its ingre­di­ents in Europe are from GMO-​free crops. Deriv­a­tives would shortly follow.

Best­foods: told FoEE that there are no noti­fi­able GMO ingre­di­ents (soya and maize)in their prod­ucts, but said there was no com­pany pol­icy on sourc­ing deriv­a­tives. Wouldn’t put this in writing.

Sea­gram Spir­its and wines: Prod­ucts in Europe “con­tain no GMOs or DNA”

Kellogg’s: “Kel­logg is con­scious of con­sumer pref­er­ences and does not use GM maize or soya ingre­di­ents or deriv­a­tives in its break­fast cere­als sold in Europe…At present, our other grain-​based morn­ing foods such as Kellogg’s Pop-​tarts, Rice Krispies Squares and Nutri-​Grain bars con­tain maize or soya deriv­a­tives pro­duced from raw mate­ri­als pur­chased on the world market…Kellogg is cur­rently seek­ing non-​GM sources for these ingre­di­ents and we hope to have com­pleted this process by the end of the year.”

Asso­ci­ated British Foods [ABF]: “A sur­vey of our man­u­fac­tur­ing oper­a­tions con­firms that this [the process of ensur­ing that prod­ucts con­tain nei­ther GMO ingre­di­ents nor deriv­a­tives of GMO crops] is now completed”

Cad­bury Schweppes: Told Friends of the Earth that it is mak­ing every effort to ensure that all its ingre­di­ents and deriv­a­tives are from GMO-​free crops.

Friends of the Earth also con­tacted McDonald’s Europe – Europe’s largest restau­rant out­let. It said that “McDonald’s in Europe have asked sup­pli­ers to source non-​GM ingre­di­ents, addi­tives and pro­cess­ing aids”.

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For fur­ther infor­ma­tion from Friends of the Earth, con­tact: Mark Whiteis-​Helm, FoE U.S., 202−783−7400 x102, or Neil Ver­lan­der, Friends of the Earth – U.K, 011 45 171 566 1649

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