- The text disclosure reads “contains a bioengineered food ingredient”. This will be on the label or the produce box (e.g. corn). This is the most common disclosure.
- The symbol disclosure is the one you see here on the screen.
- The electronic disclosure must include a statement such as “scan here for more food information” and then link to a page with the disclosure.
- The text message disclosure must include the statement text [command word] to [number] for bioengineered food information.
Food companies have the option to voluntarily disclose if they use refined ingredients that come from a genetically engineered source under the 5% detectability threshold. This disclosure would be labeled as derived from bioengineering or ‘ingredients derived from a bioengineered source’ on the label.
While large food manufacturers must comply, foods sold or made in restaurants, food trucks, trains, airplanes, delis and other food establishments are not required to make the disclosure.
Bioengineered food ingredients come from genetically modified organism (gmo). Crops are usually genetically modified to make them more resistant to herbicides, control weeds, and protect from pests. Common bioengineered food ingredients according to the FDA include cornstarch, corn syrup, corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil, or granulated sugar. This is the full list of all the crops that can be genetically engineered:
- Alfalfa
- Arctic Apples
- Canola (95% of all canola)
- Corn (92% of all corn)
- Cotton (96% of all cotton)
- Eggplant
- Papaya
- Pineapple (pink flesh varieties)
- Potato
- Salmon
- Soybean (94% of all soybean)
- Squash (summer)
- Sugarbeet
- Sugarcane
Examples of popular foods with genetically engineered ingredients include:
- Doritos
- Cape Cod Jalapeno Chips
- Lucky Charms
- Impossible Foods
- Oreos
- Campbell’s Soup
- Honey Maid Graham Crackers
- Honey Nut Cheerios
The four ago-chemical giants Bayer-Monsanto, BASF, ChemChina, and Dow-Dupont control crop bioengineering, seed supply, and pesticide production.
The longstanding concern is that the FDA does not test whether genetically engineered crops are safe and also does not require independent pre-market safety review testing. The agro-chemical giants submit their own industry funded testing during their voluntary communications with the FDA. Bioengineered crops reduce biodiversity, guarantee synthetic pesticides are used, and threaten native and heirloom varieties.
The agro-chemical companies have also been poisoning Hawaii with geentic crop testing and pesticide use for decades. As of 2014, over 3,236 genetically modified field trials were conducted in Hawaii. A Center for Food Safety study reported that chem giants like Dow Dupont, BASF, Syngenta, and Bayer-Monsanto spray 17 times more restricted-use insecticides per acre in Kauai than on cornfields in the US mainland. The Hawaii CFS reports also show that from 2007 to 2012, DuPont-Pioneer sprayed fields on Kauai with 90 different chemical formulations containing 63 active ingredients. The company sprayed eight to sixteen times a day every two out of three days. Six out of the seven restricted-use pesticides still being used are suspected of being endocrine disruptors according to the EPA.
Here's an excerpt from the report, "Pesticide drift frequently sickens Hawai‘i’s schoolchildren, triggering nausea, vomiting, dizziness and difficulty breathing, among other symptoms, and in some cases necessitating decontamination showers, school evacuations and hospitalization. Children and adults in Waimea, Kaua‘i, downwind of DuPont-Pioneer fields, have been particularly hard hit by pesticide drift and “fugitive dust;” Kaua‘i physicians report “almost daily” respiratory complaints,
as well as nose bleeds and dermatitis; and they suspect pesticides as a possible cause of high cancer and birth defect rates."
You can file a complaint on the AMS website if you believe a food product with bioengineered ingredients doesn’t have a disclosure.
The easiest way to avoid GMOs is to buy organic, source local, and grow food yourself!
