Nearly all US packaged food with a “natural” label in fact contains high levels of genetically modified ingredients, tests by the product testing watchdog Consumer Reports reveal.
Consumer Reports said its study included more than 80 different processed foods containing corn or soy — the two most prevalent genetically modified crops in the US — to determine if the “natural” labels was in fact true, Reuters reports.
The conclusion: consumers are being deceived by the “natural” label, Urvashi Rangan, executive director of Consumer Reports Food Safety and Sustainability, told the agency.
While the “non-GMO” and “organic” labels proved trustworthy, the study found that nearly all of the food bearing the natural “label” contained substantial amounts of GMO ingredients. The watchdog tested a minimum of two samples from each of the 80 products, which were purchased between April and July 2014.
Products considered to be GMO-free contained no more than 0.9 percent genetically modified corn or soy, a stricter standard than that employed by the US government.