Naturalpath

I just read an alarming blurb in VegNews (June 2007, Page 20) that Unilver, the largest supplier of frozen desserts to the US (and parent company to Ben & Jerry's, Breyer's, Klondike, and Popsicle brands), has started using "ice structuring antifreeze" proteins from genetically modified FISH in some of their products. They synthesize the GMO compound from yeast that comes from the blood of ocean pout to prevent "the crystallization of ice cream when it melts and is refrozen."

In April 2006, two professors from the British Institute of Science in Society (ISIS), Prof. Joe Cummins, Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Malcolm Hooper, wrote a report they submitted to the UK Food Standards Agency, opposing Unilever's application to use these GMO fish genes in their food products. Apparently, there are health risks associated with ingestion of these products, including allergic reactions and inflammation. The scientists strongly recommended extensive testing before allowing these modified fish genes into the food chain.

In April 2007, these same authors submitted another article and reported that the UK Independent Science Panel had recommended not allowing the introduction of food products containing these modified fish genes into the UK until long-term studies are conducted.

Unfortunately, we're not lucky enough in the US to have government agencies that look out for consumers, since their bread and butter comes from industry. (Check out this Food & Drug Administration's response letter from 2003 to a Unilever subsidiary.) Given the industry's fairly successful lobbying efforts, GMO foods have been declared in the US to be basically no different than other foods, so there's generally no need to test or label food items that contain GMO's. (In fact, there's an incidious industry movement afoot to make it illegal to label foods as containing or not containing GMOs because they're the "same" as non-GMO foods.) If you and your kids eat ice cream (as mine do in alarmingly large quantities), the only way to be certain that you're not also eating this fish GMO is to eat only organic (Strauss is terrific) or vegan (So Delicious, Tofutti).

For a list of some other genetic modifications of marine life, check out this University of Minnesota Brief. For a 1999 article published in the American Chemical Society (Chemtech) about how incorporating antifreeze proteins (AFP's as they're known in the industry) can boost business opportunities, check out this article (not surprisingly, funded largely by A/F Protein Inc). For more information on GMO fish, check out the Union of Concerned Scientists article on GMO salmon.

To moniter efforts to require labeling of GMO food products in the US, check out this site! Wikipedia also had a nice summary of the US, European and international standards on labeling GMO foods.