New Zealand Takes Stand on GM Advertising
In a development only recently noticed in the United States, New Zealand’s Commerce Commission took action in late 2009 against a poultry producer that claimed its chickens contained no genetically modified (GM) ingredients. According to a November 18, 2009, commission news release, Inghams Enterprises (NZ) Pty. Limited was warned that it risked breaching the Fair Trading Act by stating that its chicken products contained “No . . . GM ingredients” and “have no added hormones, GM ingredients or artificial colours,” when the company’s chickens were fed with a product that contained 13 percent GM soy.
The commission based its action on a report issued by a Canterbury University genetics and molecular biology professor who concluded that “GM plant material can transfer to animals exposed to GM feeds in their diets or environment, and that there can be a residual difference in animals or animal-products as a result of exposure to GM feed.”
The report reviews the scientific literature to determine whether the DNA of GM plants can be present in animal products. Author Jack Heinemann did not consider “whether eating GM plants poses an overall health risk to the animal or transfers a health risk to humans through the animal” or “whether significant differences between animals fed GM-derived substances were of ‘biological significance,’ or within the range of physiological diversity seen in those species.” The findings were specifically tailored to the question presented, which focused on the “high likelihood” that a consumer would be “able to avoid ingestion of DNA, protein or other substances that might be unique to a GM plant or its method of cultivation and processing, or be able to avoid animal physiological or immunological responses to substances unique to GM plants, through consumption of animals raised on GM feed.” According to Heinemann, the answer to that question is no.
While the EU requires mandatory labeling of GM ingredients in food and feed, New Zealand’s action has been characterized as “landmark,” because no other country or region requires similar labels for the meat, dairy or egg products from animals fed with GM feed. See ktradionetwork.com, January 15, 2010.
