Australia's Largest Canola Oil Buyer 
Rejects Genetic Engineering 

Network of Concerned Farmers (Australia) 20aug03

The country's biggest buyer of canola oil is taking an interesting position in the debate over genetically modified crops, saying it won't buy a product made from GM canola.

Goodman Fielder secures roughly 60 per cent of fats and oils grown or processed in Australia, and says its consumers aren't interested in purchasing a GM product.

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/stories/s928318.htm ABC Rural News Wednesday, 20/08/2003

Goodman Fielder won't buy gm canola oil -

The country's biggest buyer of canola oil is taking an interesting position in the debate over genetically modified crops, saying it won't buy a product made from GM canola.

Goodman Fielder secures roughly 60 per cent of fats and oils grown or processed in Australia, and says its consumers aren't interested in purchasing a GM product.

But commodities director Warren Burden says the company will continue to buy oil processed from conventionally grown canola, as long as it doesn't breach contamination standards. "In terms of genetically modified canola, Goodman Fielder will comply with the labelling standards that require them to have a limit of which I think at present is about maximum one per cent genetically modified content, as, in terms of any cross-contamination."

This is a transcript from the ABC National Rural News that is broadcast daily to all states on ABC Regional Radio's Country Hour and in the city on ABC News Radio.

source: http://www.non-gm-farmers.com/news_details.asp?ID=643 31aug03

Australia: 
Goodman Fielder Says it Won't Buy GM Canola Oil 

Just Food.com 20aug03

Article Summary:
Australian food company Goodman Fielder has become the latest group to add its opinion to the debate over genetically modified crops. Goodman Fielder, Australia’s biggest buyer of canola oil, has said it will not buy products made from genetically modified canola, because its consumers are not interesting in buying GM products, reported ABC News.

source: http://www.just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=55122 31aug03

Many thanks for sending this article to the Natural Law Party Wessex www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex 

Goodman Fielder Policy 

From Website 31aug03

STATEMENT ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED INGREDIENTS

Background

The Australian and New Zealand Health Ministers have agreed to a new rigorous labelling regime governing genetically modified ingredients. The legislation was introduced on 7 December 2001.

Key Messages

Goodman Fielder policy states:

Goodman Fielder's Policy Position

Goodman Fielder has a clear policy on genetically modified material in our food products. The key elements of the policy are:

GM ingredients
Goodman Fielder has made a public commitment not to supply food products that contain genetically modified material.

Suppliers
Goodman Fielder sources ingredients from suppliers in line with our commitment not to provide food products that contain genetically modified materials, which means our products do not require labelling.

Labelling
Goodman Fielder will clearly abide by all labelling requirements of food and other regulatory authorities namely the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code and the Fair Trading Act. This is not limited to the labelling of genetically modified products, but we aim to comply with all requirements relevant to our entire range of products.

To the above end, we have worked diligently to comply with new requirements to provide meaningful information to consumers, and increase consumer confidence in our products.

We use all reasonable endeavours to ascertain the genetic modification status of every ingredient, and additive and processing aid of every product.

We have undertaken extensive testing and have established rigorous audit trails throughout our production systems, and take all reasonable care to ensure our products comply with the new regulatory requirements.

For further information:

Consumer Advisory Centre, Freecall 1800 025 768

source: http://www.uncletobys.com.au/dir065/gfsite/gflimited.nsf/Content/Food+&+Nutrition+-+Policy+on+Genetically+Modified+Ingredients 31aug03