How to Avoid GM Foods?

As a consumer, you have more power than you might think.    When as little as 5% of the U.S. population refuses to buy GM food products, it won't be long before food manufacturers will start to respond by switching their ingredients. They can't afford not to! Europe managed to reach their tipping point in April of 1999, within a single week of negative media which swayed the shopping habits of consumers enough for food companies to commit to stop using GM ingredients.

Here are some basic guidelines on how to avoid GM foods.    For more detail, and information on foods not listed here, such as baby food, grains, beans, pasta, cereals, baked goods, frozen foods, soups sauces, canned foods, dressings see:

NON-GMO SHOPPING GUIDE

Basic Guidelines

A good resource for non-GMO shopping advice and finding non-GMO foods: Non-GMO Shopping Guide.

Look for the Non-GMO Project butterfly on products:

Buying organic produce ensures GM-free.   By definition, food certified "organic" must be free from all GM organisms, produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers and from an animal reared without the routine use of antibiotics, growth promoters or other drugs. However, organic farmers surveyed by the Organic Farming Research Foundation said they are concerned that the seeds they buy are contaminated with GMO's. Consequently, federal rules now allow organically labeled products to contain up to 2% of GM ingredients unintentionally mixed in with organic crops, since genetic tests cost > $300 (even with this added cost, ~11% of organic farmers in the U.S. still test for GMO's, driving up the price of organic foods). In Europe, consumers won't accept any percentage of GM ingredients in organic food.

Reduce or Eliminate Processed Foods.    About 75% of processed foods contain some GM ingredients (as well as containing trans fats and being nutritionally poor). Such foods include:

Read Produce and Food Labels.   Unless it is labeled organic, GM components are in almost every processed product with a corn or soy ingredient, as well as some containing canola, cottonseed oil and beet sugar.

• Corn.   Corn flour, cornmeal, corn oil, cornstarch, gluten, sweeteners (E.g. High fructose corn syrup, fructose,dextrose/dextrin, and glucose), Modified food starch (May be derived from other sources);
• Soy.    Soy flour, soy sauce, soy lecithin, soy protein, soy isolate and isoflavone, Soybean oil, soy milk;
• Canola.   Canola oil (also called rapeseed oil); An estimated 54 % of all canola grown in the U.S. in 2001 was genetically modified, according to industry estimates. ~80% of Canada's canola crop acreage is GM;
• Cotton.   Cottonseed oil;
•   Beet sugar - Anything not listed as 100% cane sugar. To AVOID GM beet sugar, look for organic and non-GMO sweeteners, candy and chocolate products made with 100% cane sugar, evaporated cane juice or organic sugar.

Look for the word "Organic" and a 5-digit PLU starting with a 9

Note: there is no PLU code to indicate GM produce

Very FEW fresh fruits in U.S. are GM.   Even novel products such as seedless watermelons are NOT GM; exceptions include:

• Hawaiian Papaya - about half of Hawaii's papayas are GM.
• A few zucchini varieties, yellow crookneck squash, sweet corn - may be GM.

Commonly, non-organic meat, fish, eggs are produced from animals raised on GM foods.    Mostly grains. As yet, there is no approval for GM fish, fowl, or livestock. Choose wild, rather than farmed fish, and 100% grass-fed animals to ensure their diet was non-GM.

• Non-GMO meat and fish include:

• Non-GMO Eggs include:

Dairy products

US dairies were invited to answer a questionare about their organic dairy products to determine authenticity of their organic label. Unfortunately, some of the higher rated brands are not available nationwide:

https://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html

• Non-organic dairy products are likely from animals fed GM grains
• Buy rBGH-free Dairy.   Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) is a genetically engineered hormone designed to increase a cow's milk production.

Non-GMO, organic Dairy Product brands include:

Dairy Product brands produced Without rbGH, include:

Dairy Product brands may contain GMO Ingredients :

-  Ice cream made with rBGH milk :

Non-GMO, ALTERNATIVE Dairy Product brands include:

(Many alternative, non-organic dairy products are made from GM soy)

DISCLAIMER: The content on this website is intended for informational, and educational purposes only and not as a substitute for the medical advice, treatment or diagnosis of a licensed health professional. The author of this website is a researcher, not a health professional, and shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, punitive or other damages arising from any use of the content of this website. Any references to health benefits of specifically named products on this site are this website author's sole opinion and are not approved or supported by their manufacturers or distributors.