Consumer Alert: Look Out for Genetically Engineered Foods

A list of approved genetically engineered foods.

July/August 2001
By Natural Home Staff 
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Seventy-five percent of Americans want to know whether their food contains genetically engineered ingredients, a recent poll by the Pew Charitable Trust has found. And given that the Grocery Manufacturers of America estimate that 60 to 70 percent of all processed foods may contain biotech soy or corn, consumers have a lot to learn. While more product labels guaranteeing the absence of genetically altered ingredients are showing up on grocery shelves, the United States has not moved to require labels on products that do contain bio-foods. Britain, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and most of Europe have adopted labeling standards.

RELATED CONTENT

The Food and Drug Administration released the following partial list of foods that tested positive for genetic modification in September 1999.

GENETICALLY ENGINEERED WHOLE FOODS APPROVED FOR COMMERCIAL SALE

Canola oil
Radicchio
Corn
Cotton
Papaya
Potato
Soybean
Squash
Tomato

GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PREPARED FOODS APPROVED FOR COMMERCIAL SALE

Alpo Dry Pet Food
Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix
Ball Park Franks
Betty Crocker Bac-O’s
Boca Burger Chef
Max’s Favorite
Bravo’s Tortilla Chips
Duncan Hines Cake Mix
Enfamil ProSobee Soy Formula
Frito-Lay Corn Chips
Gardenburger
General Mills Total Corn Flakes Cereal
Heinz 2 Baby Food
Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
Light Life Gimme Lean
McDonald’s McVeggie Burgers
Morningstar Farms
Better’n Burgers
Morningstar Farms
Harvest Burgers
Nestle Carnation Alsoy
Infant Formula
Old El Paso Taco Shells
Ovaltine Malt Powdered
Beverage Mix
Post Blueberry Morning Cereal
Quaker Chewy Granola Bars
Quaker Yellow Corn Meal
Quick Loaf Bread Mix
Similac Isomil Soy Formula
Ultra Slim Fast

Organics Taste Test

Perhaps you’ve been buying organic fruit and vegetables out of concern for the environment or your own health. Now you can add another reason to seek out pesticide-free produce: taste. In a recent study conducted at Washington State University, published in the journal Nature, a panel of amateur tasters found apples grown in organic plots sweeter and firmer than those grown in conventional or “integrated” plots on the same four acres.

“Ratios of soluble solids [sugar] content to acidity [tartness], an indication of sweetness, were most often highest in organic fruit,” the report states. Andy Dolph, who managed the test plots, believes the organic fruit’s cell structure is better because it doesn’t grow as quickly as fertilized produce. “Because the trees are in a more nutrient-rich soil, an evenly balanced soil, they impart that to the apples,” he says.

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