How to Avoid GM Food : Hundreds of Brands, Products and Ingredients to Avoid [Paperback]

First we had the unnatural practice of feeding recycled animal remains to herbivores--cows, sheep and pigs--which gave us BSE and its human equivalent CJD. Now we have genetic modification techniques which enable scientists to isolate and identify a gene that produces a desired characteristic, copy it, then insert it into another species. According to Joanna Blythman this could pose a more hazardous risks than BSE.

So for all those consumers who want to know the what, why, when and how about genetically modified (GM) foods look no further as this book has the answers for you. This step-by-step guide provides informative material about why you might not want to eat GM foods, why you can't rely on labels, how to avoid GM foods plus lots more.

This book is well-written and educates the consumer on how to avoid GM foods when shopping, listing specific supermarkets and food companies which are involved in the manufacture of these products. It also gives the consumer advice on how to take action to let supermarkets and politicians know how they feel on the subject. The book is a pocket-sized paperback volume which makes it light and easy to carry around--for example while out shopping.

Readers unfamiliar with certain scientific terms may find parts of this book initially difficult to understand, but it is worth persevering as the various sections become self-explanatory and ultimately straightforward.

The first, groundbreaking book, by Britain’s foremost food commentator, Joanna Blythman, to tell you all you need to know about genetically modified food and how to avoid it – from bread to supermarket cook-chill suppers.

The development of GM foods is giving rise to the most important debate there has ever been over the way our food is produced. With thousands of GM foods in the pipeline, everyone needs to be aware of the implications and be able to make informed choices. In the first book to be published on GM foods, the country’s leading expert on food issues, Joanna Blythman, gives much needed information and advice on gene foods and tells you everything you need to know to shop defensively. She gives a general strategy for identifying and avoiding gene foods when you shop and, after exhaustive original research, lists, brand by brand, gene products. This includes everything from baby foods to drinks to toothpaste and vitamin supplements.

Want to avoid genetically modified food? Not sure how to do that? Let this simple and incisive guide do the detective work for you. Written by award-winning food journalist Joanna Blythman, it summarises the arguments against GM foods, underlines why consumers are right to oppose them and explains why labels won't give you the answers you're looking for. It covers everything you need to know about:

* The types of foods most likely to be GM
* Where your supermarket stands on GM food
* Ingredients to watch out for that could be GM
* Your shopping basket profile and its GM risk
* How to avoid GM food when you eat out

This user-friendly guide puts everyday foods under the microscope and arms you with practical, detailed checklists:

* Hundreds of popular food brands rated green, amber or red according to their likelihood of containing GM ingredients
* A directory of own-label products with GM ingredients to avoid

Joanna Blythman is Britain’s leading investigative food journalist and an influential commentator on the British food chain. She has won five Glenfiddich Awards for her writing, including a Glenfiddich Special Award for her first book, The Food We Eat, and the Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year Award in 2005 for Shopped, as well as a Caroline Walker Media Award for ‘Improving the Nation’s Health by Means of Good Food’, and a Guild of Food Writers Award for The Food We Eat. In 2004 she won the prestigious Derek Cooper Award, one of BBC Radio 4’s Food and Farming Awards. She has also written two other groundbreaking books, How to Avoid GM Food and The Food Our Children Eat. She writes and broadcasts frequently on food issues.