Expert: 40% of organic soya is tainted

Millions of consumers are buying "healthy" organic food that is actually contaminated with GM material, a leading scientist claims.

Tests on a range of organic foods such as vegetarian sausages and soya beans, all sold in British supermarkets, have shown that 40 per cent - including products that are specifically labelled as being GM free - are contaminated.

Professor Denis Murphy of the University of Glamorgan, who led the research, today accused manufacturers of "horribly misleading" the public.

He now plans to repeat the exercise with conventional foods and believes more than half are likely to contain traces of GM.

Today's study looked at soya-based products, widely available and popular with vegetarians and the health conscious.

It is the first research to focus on the amount of GM chemicals present in supposedly untainted food, and the findings will alarm GM campaigners.

The news comes as the Government gave the go-ahead for GM maize to be grown in Britain. Farmers fear pollen from the GM maize will contaminate conventional crops nearby. Organic farmers described the decision as "a black day for British agriculture".

Professor Murphy's team of researchers studied 25 popular organic foods.

It is believed the GM traces they found originated from soya imported from the US, where GM food has been legal for several years and where it is estimated that two-thirds of crops have been contaminated by pollen from modified plants.

"Consumers are being horribly misled by

the labelling of these products, and unless something is done it is only going to get worse," Professor Murphy said.

"I think there is a massive amount of confusion over whether an organic label means GM-free, and what exactly GM-free means. We have given our results to the Government, and I would like to see the entire labelling system overhauled. In another year this problem will be much worse."

Professor Murphy added: "We have just begun looking at normal foods and I think the problem will be far worse than people imagine."

The Soil Association, one of six organisations that can license organic products in Britain, said it was not surprised by the results.

A spokeswoman said: "We know there is a lot of work to be done before consumers can be totally sure they are actually buying GM food.

"However, we would say that if we found more than 0.1 per cent of GM material in a product it is unlikely we would approve it.

"Only one of our products was involved in the study and we are working with the supplier in question. Producers need to be very careful about sourcing their ingredients-from GM-free zones. However-I think it is a problem that will only be made worse if GM crops are grown in this country."

The researchers claim the extent of the problem is so bad they would not release the names of the products involved.

Professor Murphy said: "This is such a big problem, naming and shaming would be unfair. We've given the brands to the Government but we think this is so widespread it would be unfair to name and shame individuals."