By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
For tofu lovers, don't be alarmed but take it with a dose of aplomb. Soybeans imported from the United States, which are a key ingredient to tofu products, have been found to be bio-engineered.
The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) said Wednesday it found genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in all 39 samples of soy beans imported from the United States tested between 2005 and 2007, which were mostly used for making tofu.
This basically means GMOs are contained in every tofu product here that is not made entirely of organic and Korean-grown soybeans.
However, the U.S. soybeans are legally labeled as non-GMO products here as the GMO contamination rate in them ranged from just 0.04 percent to 1.78 percent. The Korean law allows non-GMO food products to contain up to 3 percent GMOs, the presence of which is defined as ``adventitious'' or ``technically unavoidable.'' The cap set by the European Union, in comparison, is 0.9 percent.
Among the 2,160 agricultural products and processed food products tested during the three-year span, GMOS were found in 341 of them, representing 15.8 percent, the KFDA said.
``Since Korea introduced the labeling law on GMOs, the contamination rate has been getting lower every year from 22.7 percent in 2005, 13.1 percent in 2006 and 9.4 percent in 2007,'' said a KFDA spokesman.
Consumer awareness on genetically modified food has been increasing recently, with civic groups pressuring businesses to stop using GMOs.
Since a coalition of consumer advocate groups launched their ``GMO Free'' campaign in June, 22 Korean companies ― including Nongshim, Seoul Milk, Coca-Cola Korea and Papa Jones Korea ― have joined the movement, which is now becoming a food industry marketing pitch.
However, other companies such as Lotteria and Burger King say it is difficult for them to make the same promise when they can't control the possibility of GMOs mixed in imported food products, just as in the case of the soybeans.
``The government must set stricter regulations on the import of GMOs, and strengthen the cap on contamination rate to 1 percent, like the European Union does,'' said an official from the Citizen's Coalition Against the Import of Genetically Modified Corn.
``Also, the label GMO should not be based on DNA testing of finished products, but on the substances of the original source materials,'' she said.
However, some companies complain that policymakers and consumers are ignoring the benefits of genetically modified foods as there is no scientific evidence suggesting that they are unsafe.