Labelled Goods Hard to Find

With this perception in mind, producers expect accurately labelled products containing GM ingredients to fail on the market - and expect that consumers will opt against them, even though they essentially are equivalent to competing "GM free" products. In addition, environmental and consumer groups publicly denounce labelled products - placing pressure on producers.

Anyone who places labels on their GM products risks losses in sales and damage to their image. In order to avoid this, many producers have changed the composition of their products: rapeseed oil (canola oil) may be used instead of soybean oil for producing margarine – soy lecithin may be replaced by chemical emulsifiers. Other producers pay a premium for soy with a written guarantee that GM content does not exceed the 0.9 percent threshold, thus allowing the producer to use soy and forgo the GM label.

Genetic engineering outside the scope of the labelling directive

Areas in which the application of genetic engineering is very common and often unavoidable are not covered by the labelling directive. Genetic engineering is a very broad field, and even when organisations, producers, and retailers use the term "GMO-free", genetic engineering often is involved nonetheless. Therefore, even supermarkets with no products labelled as GMOs may not be free from all types of genetic engineering.

Examples of this are:

• Meat, milk, egg, and other animal products from animals fed GM plants. Annually, the EU imports 35 to 40 million tonnes of soy primarily for use as animal feed. Commercially available soy-based feeds generally contain 40-60 percent material from GM plants.

• Food enzymes produced with the help of GM microorganisms. Such enzymes are used in the production of cheese, baked goods, juices, wine, grape sugar, and glucose syrup.

• Additives, vitamins, and flavours that are produced by GM microorganisms. These substances do not require labelling if they do not possess content from the GM microorganism from which they were produced.