Greenpeace launches GE shopping guide

Australian cookbook icon Margaret Fulton joined Greenpeace at Sydney's Fox Studios on Friday last week to launch the environmental campaigner's True Food Guide book.

The book is a shopping list that categorises foods which Greenpeace says are free of genetically engineered ingredients, or made by companies that are either becoming GE-free or which use GE ingredients.

The latter category also includes companies "that did not respond adequately" to Greenpeace enquiries.

Over 170 food companies and 400 products are classified in the book. Greenpeace also launched new research that claimed 68 per cent of Australians would be less likely to buy a food if they knew it was genetically engineered.

"It is clear that most Australians don't want to eat GE foods, but they've had no way of knowing how to avoid them," said Greenpeace GE campaigner John Hepburn. "The guide will empower shoppers to say no to genetically engineered foods."

But Dr William Rolleston, chairman of biotech lobby group Life Sciences Network, said consumers should look elsewhere to get accurate sources of information on GE food.

"Not only does this publication fail to provide consumers with responsible information, it also serves to tarnish the reputations of many Australian food companies who are blacklisted simply because they declined to participate in a Greenpeace survey earlier this year," Rolleston said.

"The intention to confuse and mislead is highlighted on page three where a disclaimer states no independent testing of the foods contained in the food guide has been undertaken. Greenpeace also states it cannot guarantee the GE or GE-free status of the products listed."

Greenpeace plans to distribute half a million free guides nationally, beginning with stalls at the Good Food Shows in Sydney and Melbourne.

Margaret Fulton, the public face of the launch, said that "Genetically engineered food threatens everything I stand for."