1 October 2013
United States
Several ranges of tuna products in the United States have been given non-GMO verification, certifying that the product has gone through a rigorous process to ensure it does not contain any genetically modified organisms. US retailer, Whole Foods Market, along with the NSF International has recently announced that by 2018 all of its non-GMO products will be labeled.
As part of these efforts, Whole Foods Market has already given Tree of Life tongol/longtail tuna the stamp of non-GMO approval, along with Natural Sea branded albacore tuna and Tonnino cuts of yellowfin tuna.
Whole Foods Market CEO, Walter Robb said: “We’re responding to our customers who have consistently asked us for GMO labeling, and we are doing so by focusing on where we have control: in our own stores. We are working together with our supplier partners to grow our non-GMO supply chain to ensure we can continue to provide these choices in the future.â€
The US canned tuna market tends to be brine orientated; however also other varieties of canned tuna are being included in the labeling project. To see Albacore tuna products in spring water or olive oil to be marked as NON – GMO, can come across as unnecessary.
Tuna is a wild fish that is not subject to any genetic manipulation, and less than one percent of the global tuna catch is farmed, and these are only fed with wild catch too. Tuna in spring water therefore has very little chance of being a GMO product and tuna in olive oil also avoids this risk, given a fully natural product –olive oil- is added to the wild fish.
In the US, however, hydro-protein or vegetable broth made from soy bean extract is often added into canned tuna in spring water. Both of these additives are commonly identified as being GMO. Tuna in sunflower oil and soy bean oil also carry this risk. Whole Foods will label all products tested and found to be non-GMO, whether or not they have an extremely low-risk status.
Whole Foods offers a range of wild caught, sustainable seafood from marine fisheries, and recommends customers to ‘Go Wild’ in order to avoid GMOs. It outlines that often farmed fish eat GMO feed.
