May '08 | Catering establishments must declare GM foods
IGMORANCE
(Sorry, it's a truly terrible pun)
Last year we reported a survey carried out in York and North Yorkshire which revealed that up to 25% of independent caterers were using GM cooking oil without making its presence known to customers. (see GM PIE 'N' A PINT – News, October 2007)
The exercise has now been repeated in Norfolk where Trading Standards Officers found 42% of caterers were using GM vegetable oil or mayonnaise without the legally required declaration. The senior officer commented “From speaking to these businesses, it became clear that they really haven't got a clue that they had to declare it and in most cases they haven't realised that they were using GM food.” It's a case of ignorance rather than trying to pull the wool over people's eyes, but that's certainly no excuse.”
The outlets risk a maximum £5,000 fine or 6 months in jail for failure to disclose their use of GM. However, such penalties would only be applied if the caterer failed to act on Trading Standards Office advice.
GM Freeze is calling for urgent action by the public in as many areas as possible to ask their local Trading Standards Office what they are doing to uphold the law on GM declarations in catering establishments.
You can find the address of your local Trading Standards Office at www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/consumers/consumers.cfm. The Glasgow office is at:
Glasgow City Council,
Environmental Protection 'Services,
Consumer & Trading Standards Division,
231 George Street,
Glasgow. G1 1RX
Telephone 0141-287 6681
E-mail cats.enquiries@eps.glasgow.gov.uk
GM Freeze also request that you forward a copy of any replies you receive to them so that they can identify what further action is needed. The address is:
GM Freeze,
94 White Lion Street,
London. N1 9PF
E-mail enquiry@gmfreeze.org