1. FDA's Report on Consumer Focus Groups on Biotechnology - excerpts and url

2. Consumers Want Engineered Food Labeled: Shoppers Express 'Outrage'
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1. FDA's Report on Consumer Focus Groups on Biotechnology
October 20, 2000
full report: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/biorpt.html

2 excerpts below

"After being presented with a factual account of the extent to which certain grain crops in the US are being produced from bioengineered seed and the extent to which bioengineered ingredients are present in processed foods, most participants expressed great surprise that food biotechnology has become so pervasive in the U.S. food supply. Even among participants who considered themselves well-informed about biotechnology, many registered amazement. The typical reaction of participants was not one of great concern about the immediate health and safety effects of unknowingly eating bioengineered foods, but rather outrage that such a change in the food supply could happen without them knowing about it."

"Some participants remarked that bioengineered foods have been "snuck in" to the food supply. They were mainly disturbed by the lack of public information and public input to a major development in the quality of their food supply. This information about prevalence served to reinforce the most negative and cynical views some participants held about food biotechnology. Some participants saw this as evidence of a conspiracy to keep consumers in the dark, that is, the rationale for not informing the public must be that there is something to hide. " http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/biorpt.html
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Consumers Want Engineered Food Labeled
Shoppers Express 'Outrage' That Product Choices Aren't Clear, FDA Reports
Marc Kaufman
Washington Post
February 13, 2001
http://news.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=2387330&ern=y

Consumers want mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods and feel "outrage" when they learn how many supermarket products already are produced through biotechnology, according to a Food and Drug Administration report.

The internal report, which was commissioned by the agency to gauge sentiment about its proposals for voluntary labeling, said that consumers are concerned about possible long-term environmental and health effects of genetically modifed foods.

"Virtually all participants said that bioengineered foods should be labeled as such so that they could tell whether a given food was a product of the new technology," said the report, which is based on focus groups conducted last year. "They thought it would allow them to make more informed decisions about whether or not to buy a product."

The labeling of products made through bioengineering has become a contentious issue, with activists arguing that consumers need and deserve the information. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) have introduced bills to make labeling mandatory, a step already taken by the European Union and some Asian nations. The biotechnology industry has opposed mandatory labeling in the United States, saying that it would unfairly stigmatize products already determined to be safe.

Joseph A. Levitt, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said the focus group report showed that food biotechnology is a hot-button issue for many consumers, and that they want more information about it. But he said the FDA did not consider mandatory labeling to be scientifically necessary or legally possible. The agency concluded in 1992 that genetically engineered foods are substantially equivalent to conventional products.

"Companies are going to be pushed by customers to put labeling on their products," Levitt said. "Our job here is to determine what information would be educational without being misleading."

The FDA conducted its 12 focus groups in four different cities in the spring. The report, which had not been made public previously, was released by Richard Caplan of U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer watchdog group.

Caplan criticized the FDA for seeking out public opinion about food biotechnology, but being unwilling to act on the results. He said the report "severely undercuts the FDA public position on labeling of [engineered] foods.

"There is overwhelming public support in favor of mandatory labeling, and the agency knows that," he said."Whether the concerns are environmental or health-related, ethical or religious, people want to know when biotechnology is being used in their food."

The Grocery Manufacturers of America, which represents many food producers, said that its research similarly showed that people will say that they want more information about biotechnology on food labels. But spokesman Gene Grabowski said that follow-up research found that customers want more information about many subjects, and had no particularly great interest in biotechnology.

"You ask people if they want to know whether a tomato has been hand-picked or machine-picked, and they'll tell you they do," he said. "We see biotech food labeling in the same way." He said that after researchers spent 60 to 90 seconds explaining to people that the FDA did not consider genetically engineered foods to be different from conventional foods, the number who wanted mandatory labeling declined substantially.

In the focus group report, consumers voiced great surprise and concern over the way that bioengineered foods have been introduced, and how widely they are now used.

"The typical reaction of participants was not one of great concern about the immediate health and safety effects of unknowingly eating bioengineered foods, but rather outrage that such a change in the food supply could happen without them knowing about it," the report said.