Britons Eating GM Soy

Household names like Cadbury Dairy Milk and Bird’s Eye use milk, eggs and meat made from animals that could have been fed GM soy, the research shows.

The Daily Telegraph asked leading brands if they could guarantee that their products contained no ingredients from animals fed on GM soy.

The responses showed that ingredients in non-organic Hellman’s Mayonnaise or Lurpak butter could be from animals raised on a GM diet.

After the outcry over Frankenfoods in the 1990s, the EU ordered that supermarkets and manufacturers must label direct GM ingredients.

However there is no need to tell the consumer if GM has been used further back in the food chain.

Campaigners said allowing the livestock industry to become reliant on GM soy is letting in the controversial technology “by the back door”.

Environmentalists claim GM soy is driving deforestation and poisoning communities in South America.

The Telegraph survey showed that brands including Cathedral City, Cravendale milk and Magnum ice cream use products from animals that could have been fed GM.

Pet foods including Whiskas, Felix and Pedigree Chum could also include such products.

Barbara Gallani, Director of Food Safety and Science at the Food and Drink Federation, said most major brands will use meat and dairy from animals fed GM unless they are organic lines.

She said GM proteins are not passed from the soy into the animal product and the system poses no health risks.

“The increased use of biotechnology globally means that UK livestock will receive a growing proportion of GM crops in their feed,” she said. “This is largely unavoidable, as the UK has always been reliant on imports of animal feed."

More than three millions tonnes of soy is imported into the UK every year, a large proportion of which is GM.