How to navigate in labels without GMO
The labeling of non-GMO GMOs can be confusing. Here's what experts have to say so that you can know the difference when shopping.
Nowadays, labels abound on supermarket packaging:biological, all natural,vegan,gluten freeAnd, of course, non-GMO. And while some of these labels mean a lot (as approved by organic USDA or the welfare of animals), others mean, well, nothing at all. (We look at you all natural.) And yet, we are a little hard nut to crack: GMO vs non-GMO (or without GMO) and what exactly means these labels.
After several years of back-and-term (and a historic removal of Vermont legislators) in 2016,A law has finally been adopted Forcing the USDA to apply the labeling of GMO nationally. However, standards still need to be introduced on the market (and will not be until 2022) and the market is now quite difficult. But however, you look at it, non-GMO labeling is not all that seems.
GMO vs non-GMO: What are the labels really mean?
But before entering the nitty-gritty of labeling, let's start with the big question - What is GMO and non-GMO labeling, and why should you worry? Well, to start, the GMO represents genetically modified organisms. Although most experts agree that most genetically modified organisms are nothing intrinsically, there are some innate points to consider these foods. The most genetically modified foods on the US market are designed for a specific reason: help management parasites and weeds. This can be done in different ways, but the two most common are either engineering foods to withstand Weedkillers, such as glyphosate, the key ingredient of Weedkiller Common Weedkiller Bayer's Genetic Engineering to produce their own pesticides, such as BT corn.
In the case of the first, the GMO harvest is designed to resist heavy doses of glyphosate, which means that they are sprayed liberally and that the residues are found in the foods we eat. Because theWorld Health Organization Nublined Glyphosate A Probable Human Carcinogen In 2015, traces of glyphosate were found in the American food supply in all, breakfast cereals atwineThis is a good reason to opt for non-GMO foods.
In the case of BT corn, a slightly different mechanism is at stake. The Thuringiensis bacillus genes, a toxic soil bacterium for invasive parasites, are divided directly into the genome of corn, essentially allowing the plant to produce its own pesticide . But because BT corn is so widely planted throughout the United States, it has led to generalized pesticide resistance andsome experts Even post that this could be dangerous for humans.
There are also other risk factors to consider. The sale of GMO seeds reduces natural biodiversity in the soil and obtains farmers caught in a cycle to apply chemicals to their crops that are difficult to escape. Genetic modification can even make effects out of target. But while you want to avoid GMOs, the search for the label does not necessarily mean what you think it means.
Here are three times more than the non-GMO label does not support a lot of weight and can be misleading:
When it's on an organic product.
If you see a product dozens of labels and two of them are organic and non-GMO - it's like saying that something is both a square and a rectangle. The USDA organic standards prevent the inclusion of GMOs in a certified product. So, if a product already has the organic label, it does not need the non-GMO label so that you know it's already devoid of GMOs.
"Simply put, if it is a USDA certified organic product, it's non-GMO," saysSteve Taormina, Head of the Business Unit for NSF International Consumption Values Verified Program.
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When it's on a product that could not contain GMMS.
You will see non-GMO labels on all bananas in the water these days, but that does not mean much, see as there is only13 different GMO culturesAvailable in the United States today.
The non-GMO project ranked 10 of these crops like "high risk" because they are commercially available for consumers:
Apple andSalmon It will soon do that a dozen, because they will soon be available on the American market. Wheat, although it is not available in the trade in the form of GMOs, has been found tocontaminate Non-GM wheage farms and therefore complete the list of key things to watch.
Taormina explains however that although the EU and USDA regulations do not require the labeling of animal feed products fed by GMO,The non-Ogmo projectThey understand them because they pose some of the same problems as GMO cultures, especially with regard to the environmental impact of genetic engineering. If you enter with the non-GMO project definition, GMOs could also be present in products such as eggs, milk and meat.
Certainly, this restricted list becomes very long when considering the omnipresence of the above ingredients in the American food system, especially inprocessed food. Hans Eisenbeis, Director of Marketing and Communications atThe non-Ogmo projectNote that not only is each sugar beet is grown in the United States, a GMO sugar beet, but that soy and corn can be present in the form of fuel oil or syrup in a variety of goods - and even in the 'ink or plastics used for packaging.
"In your average grocery store, about 80% of all grocery stores contain GMO derivatives," says Eisenbeis.
That said, for all that is not on this list, in particular whole foods in the alley of products, it is not necessary to search for a label. If it does not contain one of the ingredients in the danger zone, it can not contain GMOs.
When it's just low to divide the hair.
Currently, the United States differentiates between two different genetic engineering techniques: transgenic modification and gene edition. In the case of the old, a felive scientist a gene of another species in the genome of a harvest or an animal, for example BT corn or aquavant salmon, which is designed by splice genes. Chinook Salmon and Ocean Pout to create a salmon that grows twice as fast as less food.
The new techniques, meanwhile, rely on the gene edition, which is when parts of the genome of a harvest are modified or deleted without relying on the genome of another species. With regard to the EU and the United Nations are concerned, both are classified as a genetic modification; In the United States, however, only the first is recognized as GMO.
"Basically, the new labeling law examines GMOs in a very simplified way," says Eisenbeis.
Experts say that genes mounting technology is less dangerous than traditional genetic modification, but Eisenbeis does not agree, as examples of genes and out-of-target effects have already occurred using these techniques. more modern.
Once the new federal law enters into force, a product such asNew soybean oil published in the gene, which is designed in a laboratory to have greater stability and that no trans grease could be labeled non-GMO despite the use of genes mounting technology. Only a product wearing the non-GMO project label will be devoid of transgenic and more recent transgenic gene editing techniques.
Non-GMO labeling is certainly troubled, but armed with good tools,You can make informed decisions about what you want to feed and your family.
