Outraged by the results of tests conducted by the ACB.
We, the undersigned members of civil society, are outraged by the ACB’s test results showing that Purity’s Cream of Maize tested positive as containing 56.25% GM maize; and Purity’s Purity Baby First tested positive as containing 71.47% GM maize.
We note with alarm, that this is not the first time that Purity’s Cream of Maize cereal tested positive for GM. In 2008, consumer watchdog SAFeAGE revealed the product to contain more than 24% GM maize. We are deeply disappointed to learn that neither of these baby foods are labeled as containing products derived from genetically modified maize.
We are of the view that Tiger Brands has acted disingenuously and deprived parents of crucial information about their baby’s nutrition. We do not want to eat GM food, much less feed our babies with GM cereals. During September 2012, Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini, and his research team at the University of Caen in France, published the results of a two-year animal feeding study in which rats fed with Monsanto’s herbicide tolerant GM maize, event NK603, and glyphosate residues, developed tumours and showed signs of liver and kidney damage.
The peer-reviewed study, published in a highly respected scientific journal has come under vicious and sustained attack from the biotechnology machinery. Nevertheless, the scientific consensus that has emerged from the discourse is that the current methods used by Monsanto et al, for testing the safety of GM food, are dangerously inadequate and that long term, independent and publicly conducted food safety studies are urgently needed.