www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

A quarter of food tested by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) in
the last five years contained genetically modified (GM) ingredients.
However, consumers would not be able to choose to avoid them because the
makers of these foods were not required to indicate this fact on the label,
April 2006.

Some 58 out of 236 samples of food on sale in Irish shops tested since
2000, had GM ingredients but labelling was not required because they were
under the legal threshold of 0.9pc, Roisin Cahillane of the Department of
Health told a Dail Committee on Agriculture.

The FSAI focused testing on foods containing maize and soya beans which are
the most common GM ingredients.

Eine Gael TD Denis Naughten said this would cause concern to many people if
they felt they were eating GM-free food.

In addition, Pat O'Mahony of the FSAI said was no scientific basis for
setting the threshold at 0.9pc.

This limit seemed, he said, to have come "out of fresh air". However,
lowering it would make life more difficult for industry because of the
strong possibility of shipments of GM-free food being contaminated by
previous ones containing GM food, he added.

There was also a problem with companies declaring their foodstuffs to be
GM-free when they contained traces of GM ingredients under the 0.9pc
threshold - or even when they weren't the type of food that could be
genetically modified anyway, making the claim spurious, Mr O'Mahony said.

The FSAI has now taken it up the issue with retailers here.

Department of Agriculture official Dermot Ryan said that vast majority of
the 400 shipments of soya, maize, rape-seed oil and cotton that come into
Ireland each year contain GM material.

Some 43 consignments that claimed to be GM-free or were not labelled either
way, had been tested and six were found to contain GM material.

However, the Department of Health is happy with the arrangements to ensure
the safety of GM food on sale in Ireland, said Ms Cahillane.

[www.unison.ie]

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