FED: CONSUMERS, FOOD CHIEFS AT LOGGERHEADS OVER 'GENE

FED: CONSUMERS, FOOD CHIEFS AT LOGGERHEADS OVER 'GENE

AAP 11.12.96 12:51

By Bruce Walkley of AAP

SYDNEY, Dec 12 AAP - Food products containing genetically engineered soybeans should be labelled, the Australian Consumers' Association (ACA) said today, but food producers countered the demand by saying labelling was "inappropriate, impractical and meaningless". "New laws for both labelling and assessment are in the pipeline," ACA policy officer Carole Renouf said in a news release. "But the 'gene bean' has managed to sneak in under the closing regulatory door."

Ms Renouf said giant agrochemical company Monsanto had "caught the government with its pants down" with the first shipment into Australia of its new Roundup Ready soybeans. She said the "gene bean" could be included in many everyday items on supermarket shelves, including ice cream, pies, chocolate, chips, margarine, mayonnaise, soup and salad dressing, without consumers knowing. "No efforts have been made to tell consumers, and the products won't be labelled," Ms Renouf said.

"In spite of surveys uniformly showing consumers demand to know when the genetic engineering process has been used, it appears that manufacturers, processors and retailers in Australia are simply shrugging this off." The executive director of the Australian Food Council (AFC), Michael Hooke, said the new beans presented "no public health or safety hazard whatsoever".

"Roundup Ready soybeans are the same as conventionally produced soybeans," Mr Hooke said in a news release. "They have the same function, the same composition, and the same nutrition and processing characteristics as conventional soybeans. They are every bit as safe." Mr Hooke said the processed food industry supported meaningful labelling where a product was "no longer equivalent to a conventionally produced counterpart". "This is not the case with Roundup Ready soybeans, which are equivalent," he said.

"Compulsory labelling of substantially equivalent foods has been soundly rejected right around the world as inappropriate, impractical and meaningless." Mr Hooke said the industry rejected any suggestion that the new beans had been "sneaked" into Australia. He said they had been approved by appropriate authorities.

Ms Renouf told AAP later the AFC's reference to safety ignored the absence of any reference to safety in the ACA's news release.

"They're hiding behind the screen of safety to deflect attention from the real issue, which is people's right to know what's in food products and decide for themselves whether they want to eat them."

AAP bzw/adh