Blog for all health-conscious: Fooducate Blog - Frito Lay Gets Sued. Increasing Pressure to Label GMOs

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Fooducate Blog - Frito Lay Gets Sued. Increasing Pressure to Label GMOs

Frito Lay Gets Sued. Increasing Pressure to Label GMOs

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 04:18 AM PST

Tostitos - All Natural GMO?

Frito Lays is being used in New York by a man who claims he was duped to paying more for product labeled “All Natural” when in fact they are not:

In the proposed class-action lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court, plaintiff Chris Shake said the snacks actually contain corn and oils made from genetically engineered plants.

Shake said he shelled out an additional 10 cents per ounce of chips to buy the allegedly “all-natural” Tostitos and SunChips instead of a product such as Doritos, which makes no such claim.

Independent testing conducted on samples of Frito-Lay products labeled “all natural” uncovered the presence of ingredients – including corn and vegetable oils – made from genetically modified plants, the lawsuit said. read more from Reuters…

Is the lawsuit justified? According to the manufacturer, their labeling “complies with all regulatory requirements.”

And truth be told, they are. There is absolutely no definition of “natural” foods in FDA guidelines, nor is there a “natural” certification program like there is for Organic food.

So perhaps a better approach would be to sue the government? Or to use democratic means to get the regulatory bodies to make a bold decision to require companies to label ingredients as Genetically Modified?

One such means is to petition the government. See for example the online petition on JustLabelIt.org. According to this consumer group, 80% of foods in our supermarkets contain genetically modified ingredients. Not surprising when you add 2+2:

- most corn and soy in the US is genetically modified.

- most processed foods have some corn or soy ingredient or derivative listed as an ingredient.

Is GMO a health risk to consumers? That’s a hotly debated issue. But if it is enough of an issue for millions of Americans, then we have a right to know if a food we are about to purchase uses genetically modified ingredients. Unfortunately, our right is being blocked by a strong lobby representing business interests, not ours.

So please go ahead and fill out the petition.

What to do at the supermarket:

To assure you are not buying GMO products you have several options:

- Buy organic. Certified organic products do not allow for GMOs.

- Buy products labeled “Non-GMO”. See the Non-GMO Project for details

- Move to Europe. The governments there listened to their constituents and decided to mandate GMO info on products. They required labeling of each GM ingredient. As a result, no manufacturer wanted to risk losing customers and opted for non-GMO ingredients.