Greenpeace alert on genetically modified food in India

HEALTH CONCERN: India imports a major chunk of corn and soya products from USA.

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New Delhi: Look around any supermarket in the Capital and you'll come across many imported food items, which you'll pick up without an iota of suspicion.

Greenpeace, one of the biggest NGOs, has tested some of the imported products - mostly corn and soya - from shops in Khan Market and Vasant Vihar in New Delhi.

The result is worrisome - it has found genetically modified content in it. India imports a major chunk of corn and soya products from USA, the world's biggest exporter of genetically modified crops.

Greenpeace activist Rakesh Krsihnan says, “Since there is no proper screening in the country we fear there is enough genetically modified food in the country. We did a random test - maybe 70 per cent of these kind of foods is already in India.”

In 1989, dozens of Americans died and several thousands were left impaired by a genetically altered version of the food supplement - L -Tryptophan. In 1996, several hundreds of people died in Brazil, following allergic reaction to genetically modified food.

Nutrionist Ritika Sammadar says, “If you mutate the wrong kind of genes then gene mutation can happen which can cause death.”

And most of us are hardly aware of the harmful effects of genetic modification of food products.

Even though the Indian government does not allow importing genetically modified products, perhaps more stringent checks are required to immediately stop import as well as make consumers aware.