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[SANET-MG] Ben and Jerry are GM free



The Independent
Ben & Jerry's breaks ranks with Unilever over 'risky' GM ice cream additive

By Jonathan Owen

Published: 16 July 2006

Ben  & Jerry's, the self-styled "all natural" ice cream manufacturer, has
broken  ranks with food giant Unilever amid controversy about GM ice cream.

The breach follows a report in The Independent on Sunday last week revealing
concerns from scientists over the risk to health from a synthetically
produced "anti-freeze" protein, using a GM process, which Unilever is trying to get
approved in the UK.

A spokesperson for Ben & Jerry's said: "We would  not dream of including
anything like that in our products. One of the biggest problems is that we are affected by Unilever's actions even though they are nothing to do with the way that we behave. The fact that we are not using this GM ingredient shows that
we are not following all of their  decisions."

The company is owned by Unilever, as are Wall's and Birds Eye. Unilever has
described the ingredient as an "exciting new technology that  has potential
benefits for ice cream, including the possibility of increased fruit content
and lower fat content". It declined to comment on the details of  its
application, beyond stating, "We believe that it will provide some real consumer benefit but we have to go through the approval system, so we'll have to wait and
see."

In a report to the Food Standards Agency (FSA),  researchers from the
Independent Science Panel warned: "Without long- term testing, we could be letting off an immunological time bomb." The FSA has confirmed that the submission is
one of several that it has received. Its  Advisory Committee on Novel Foods
and Processes decides on Thursday whether to allow the application to go to the
European Union for approval.

This comes as the bio-tech industry is taking advantage of free-trade rules to attempt to break into the European market, with dozens of applications to either grow or import GM produce, such as rice, potatoes, maize and sugar beet.

Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association, said: "Ben  &
Jerry's is showing some very sound commercial judgement


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