A “true food” website guide produced by environmental action group Greenpeace has shown that GM food is slowly disappearing from supermarket shelves in New Zealand. Set up six months ago, the site has charted the changes in the food industry with regard to the use of GM ingredients and currently rates a total of 227 companies according to their GM status.
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The giants in the world of food manufacture, including Unilever, Goodman Fielder, Mainland, Cerebos Greggs, Allied Foods/George Weston, Pillsbury NZ, Frucor, Tip Top Ice Cream and Chateau Ice Cream are all gradually moving away from using GM ingredients, in a bid to appease consumer fears. They are now represented on the website by an amber light (meaning committed to GM free ingredients but not yet sure of giving a GM free guarantee) instead of a red one (products likely to contain GM ingredients).
“It’s a good result. It’s nice to see companies moving away from GE,” said Greenpeace spokesman Ben Bond. “But we won’t be happy until the New Zealand food chain is GE-free altogether,” he added.
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As yet, only five companies have moved from the amber category into the green one (completely GM-free guaranteed). That honour has been reserved for companies that include Effem Foods, the J R Simplot Company and Harraways Cereal Millers.
