DESPITE having consumed genetically modified food in their cookies and apple pies for the best part of a decade, most Americans still don鈥檛 know they鈥檙e routinely eating the stuff.
A poll of 1000 US citizens published on 6 December reveals that only a quarter realise they鈥檙e eating GM food, and 60 per cent have no idea it鈥檚 in their diet.
鈥�60 per cent of Americans have no idea they are eating genetically modified food鈥�
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鈥淚t鈥檚 not completely off the radar, but it鈥檚 not at the top of the mind for US consumers, and never has been,鈥� says Michael Fernandez of the Washington DC-based Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, which commissioned the survey. Public ignorance might be down to the fact that most GM material is effectively hidden, he says. It may be present, for example, as soybean lecithin or maize syrup in cookies, without labelling.
So what would it take to increase awareness? As always, a good food scare. The unexplained presence of GM material in imported food, for example, would play on people鈥檚 prejudices, says Fernandez.
