TAKE ACTION: If you're in the UK, please fwd this article to your local Trading Standards office and ask what they're doing to keep illegal GM rice out of the food supply.

Why not also ask them what they're doing to make sure caterers (restaurants, take-aways etc.) are not using GM ingredients unless they're clearly labeled.

FoE's new action guide, including sample letter, makes this quick and easy to do:
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/action_guides/gm_oil_guide.doc
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Trading standards check rice for GM traces
By Phil Hill
Bridgwater Mercury, June 16 2008
http://www.bridgwatermercury.co.uk/display.var.2343611.0.trading_standards_check _rice_for_gm_traces.php

TRADING standards officers have been carrying out tests in supermarkets across Somerset to ensure no genetically modified rice is on sale.

A batch of GM rice has been imported into the UK from China and the officers are keen to keep it out of the county.

GM rice does not have approval for sale in this country, but the market is suffering a shortage due to price rises and high demand from retailers, who are limiting the amount they sell to each customer.

Councillor Henry Hobhouse, Somerset County Council's portfolio holder for community safety, said: "Due to the current demand for rice from across the world, some producers are keen to produce GM rice to meet demands.

"Somerset County Council is carrying out tests to make sure none of this rice reaches consumers in Somerset.

"Somerset businesses can help by checking with their suppliers that their rice is certified as GM free."

New rules require all rice imported from China to be tested to ensure no GM is present.

The county council introduced a ban on growing GM crops in Somerset in 2003.