q     GM animal feed labelled – but not GM food!

q      Food made solely from Icelandic raw materials will
not be GM

q      Livestock (sheep, cows, pigs, poultry) can be fed GM feed

q      Processed Icelandic food may contain imported GM ingredients

q      Iceland imports a lot of food from countries where labelling of GM foods is not required

On who´s side is the Icelandic law?

Icelandic law requires GM animal feed to be labelled but not GM foods. Therefore, the law protects a farmer’s ‘freedom of choice’ between GM and non-GM feed but does not protect the consumer’s ‘freedom of choice’ between GM and non-Gm foods. Until the Icelandic authorities implement the EU regulation on labelling and tracability of GMO’s (no. 1830/2003) Icelandic consumers will not benefit – as all the Europeans have – from GM labelling laws. In the meantime, Icelandic consumers who wish to avoid GM food products will need to exercise a degree of care and common sense.

Food products manufactured in Iceland using only Icelandic raw materials

Food products manufactured in Iceland are unlikely to contain GM ingredients if they are made from only Icelandic raw materials.  There are no GM food crops grown in Iceland and no Icelandic animals have been genetically modified. Therefore food products made solely from Icelandic raw materials (i.e. grains, dairy products or meats) will not contain GM material.

However, Icelandic law does not require the by-products of animals fed GM feed to be labelled.  Thus, the meat from lamb, poultry, pigs, cows, and horses fed GM feed does not need to be labelled, nor does the milk (and other dairy products made from milk) or eggs need to be labelled.

Identifying food products made in Iceland which contain imported GM ingredients

Food products manufactured in Iceland using imported food ingredients may contain GM material.

Icelandic food manufacturers using food ingredients imported from Europe will know if they are incorporating GM material into their products because GM foods from Europe will be labelled. But because Icelandic law does not require GM foods to be labelled, Icelandic manufacturers will not have to inform customers that their food products contain GM ingredients.

Identifying GM foods imported from countries which do not require GM foods to be labelled

GM foods may also be imported from countries – such as Canada and the United States – which do not require GM foods to be labelled. Icelandic consumers can try to identify those by reading the ingredients panel carefully. The four main GM crops that appear in GM foods are soya, maize, oilseed rape (canola) and cotton.  In the USA 80% of soya, 70% of cotton, 60% of oilseed rape and 38% of maize is GM. If a food is imported from the USA or Canada and contains ingredients made from any of these crops, there is a good chance the product contains GM material.

But deciphering food labels can be difficult. Take for example, GM maize (corn).  Consumers can recognise corn flakes, corn oil and corn syrup because they have ‘corn’ in the product name, but GM maize appears in many other products: corn meal and corn flour are used to make bread, muffins, and many snack foods like taco chips, as well as being used as cereal ‘supplements’ in hamburgers and hot-dogs. When GM maize is processed to make starch (a thickening agent) it will not be easily recognised in packaged or frozen processed foods.  Nor will consumers know that GM maize appears (in a highly processed form) in processed foods as food additives and vitamins.

(See also CONSUMERS AND MARKETS, If You Wish to Avoid GM Food… and Shopper´s Guide.)