Incident details
| Region/Continent and country: |
| Asia / Philippines |
| Category of incident: |
Contamination
|
| What was contaminated: |
| Food |
| GM organism involved: |
| Soybean |
| Year incident occurred: |
| 2001 |
|
| Route of contamination |
| Failure post-harvest segregation |
|
|
 |
Philippines – baby food with GM contamination
In 2001, Greenpeace tested a range of baby foods on sale in the Philippines. Seven out of twenty products sampled tested positive for the presence of genetically modified material. Levels of Roundup Ready soya were high at 34 %, 52% and 66 % in Gerber Mixed Fruits, Gerber Cream of Brown Rice and Gerber Green Monggo, respectively.
Gerber is owned by Novartis, one of the first companies that declared it would have a global GM-free policy in its food products. For example, on 11 June 1999, Novartis Consumer Health head Martin Stefani wrote in a letter to Greenpeace “ Our consumers can be sure that our baby food does not contain any GMOs or parts derived thereof.“
Another baby food product which tested positive for GM soya was Isomil, which is a soya-based infant formula sold in the Philippines by the international pharmaceutical and food producer, Abbott Ross. Isomil is produced in the Netherlands although it is not marked there. In the Netherlands, consumers have been assured by Abbott Ross that their products do not contain GM ingredients.
Before testing the baby foods, Greenpeace had detected the presence of GMOs in 11 other common food products bought from a Metro Manila supermarket. These products included: Bonus Vienna franks, Rica Protina hotdogs, Campo Carne Moby hotdogs, Purefoods Beefy hotdogs, Quality Foods Budget franks, crab Cake distributed by Foodmart Enetrprises, Yung Ho soya drink , Doritos Smokey Red Barbecue, Nestle Nesvita Natural Cereal Drink, Knorr Cream of Corn soup and Isomil Soy Infant Formula.
Back to the results list for this search >
Further information
Popular baby food product contaminated with GMOs. Greenpeace press release, June 13 2001 >
Back to the results list for this search > |
|
 |
