27 August, 2003

Government must reveal contaminated baby food

Green MP Sue Kedgley is calling on the Minister for Food Safety Annette King to release the names of four infant formulas that the Food Safety Authority found to be contaminated with genetically engineered soy.

Ms Kedgley, the Green Food Safety spokesperson revealed that the recent NZFSA audit of food manufacturers and importers found that four tested infant formulas contained 0.2 or 0.3 per cent of genetically engineered soy.

"It is vital that the public is informed which are the soy infant formulas that contained GE contamination so that concerned parents can avoid purchasing these formulae," said Ms Kedgley.

"It is alarming to discover that some infant formulas contain unlabelled GE soy that has never been tested on humans or undergone proper, independent safety testing.

"Many parents would be horrified to learn that they were feeding their infants genetically engineered products.

"With the rising rate of allergies to soy products in the USA and UK being linked to GE soy, it is even more critical that parents can make this choice," said Ms Kedgley.

Other food products found to contain GE contaminants included six different samples of corn chips, sandwich ham, pork luncheon, and sausage meat.

Ms Kedgley is calling on the Government to release the names of all food products that were found to contain GE ingredients in the survey, so that consumers can have the right to make informed purchasing decisions.

"The public has a right to know what is in the food they eat. The Government must come clean on what products it has found to have GE contamination, especially for our younger people."

Ms Kedgley will be asking questions of the Minister in Parliament today to publicly identify the contaminated products with the full results of the NZFSA report, Assessment of Compliance with Standard 1.5.2.

ENDS

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