Washington

More than half of Americans say they do not want to eat genetically modified (GM) food, but only one-fifth realize that they are consuming it already. These are some of the findings of a survey by a group set up to encourage a better-informed debate on the issue of transgenic foods.

A quarter of the people surveyed believe that GM foods are unsafe, and slightly more (29%) consider them safe. The remainder are not sure either way, according to a telephone survey of 1,000 adults, performed for the newly launched Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, based in Washington.

However, after being told that more than half of grocery store products in the United States already include GM foods, the percentage of respondents believing the foods to be safe jumped from 29 to 48.

The survey results “suggest that consumer opinions about safety are not strongly held and may in fact be up for grabs”, says Mike Rodemeyer, executive director of the Pew Initiative, a $12 million public information project supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

This change of opinion in response to information about GM foods shows that “mandatory labelling and safety testing will go a long way to improving people's opinions about food biotechnology”, says Jane Rissler of the Union of Concerned Scientists, which supports such labelling. The Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade association, declined to comment on the survey results.

http://www.pewagbiotech.org