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Supermarket goes GM-free

The company said it had worked with more than 1,000 suppliers to review its whole range of products.

It had clearly labelled all relevant items from its 12,000-plus range until it could secure GM-free alternatives.

It has now successfully reformulated all affected products with non-GM ingredients.

Sainsbury's took a lead among UK retailers when it set up its own helpline to inform and gain feedback from consumers on the contentious issue and in March announced it would eliminate all GM ingredients from own-brand products.

It also set up an international consortium of food retailers and industry experts to establish verified sources of non-GM crops and products.

Listening to customers

Dino Adriano, Sainsbury's chief executive, said: "GM has been one of the most important issues for our customers over the past few months and we wanted to make a clear statement.

"We have made this a priority and have been working flat out to address customer's concerns. It has been a mammoth task. Sainsbury's has one of the widest ranges of own-brand products in the food retailing industry catering for nine million customers every week."

Mr Adriano said the company had begun to identify, reformulate and label products containing GMs three years ago and by January had reduced the number of GM products to 45.

By June this had been reduced to just six items and the task had now been completed.

Bowing to pressure

All of the other big supermarkets have bowed to customer pressure and are in the process of withdrawing GM produce from their own-brand ranges of food.

One of the UK food industry's leading manufacturers and distributors, Northern Foods, has also stopped using genetically-modified ingredients.

Lord Haskins, Chairman of Northern Foods and an adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, said his company had also been forced to withdraw GM ingredients in the face of the public outcry at "Frankenstein food".

GM protests continue

Meanwhile, campaigners opposed to GM food are continuing to take direct action.

Six people were arrested for criminal damage and violent disorder offences on Sunday after the destruction of a field of genetically modified oil seed rape in Oxfordshire.

At the beginning of June, the manager of the biggest test crop of GM oil seed rape in Britain, in Wiltshire, said he had killed the crop with herbicides because of protests from the trustees of his farm.

Relevant Stories

GM protesters arrested as crops ripped up (18 Jul 99 | UK)
Asda beats Sainsbury's in grocery sales (12 Jul 99 | The Company File)
Stores unite for GM-free food (22 Jun 99 | UK)
Northern Foods bows to GM pressure (09 Jun 99 | The Company File)
Sainsbury slashes jobs (02 Jun 99 | The Company File)

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