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Everything about Genetically Modified food in the Gulf seems a blur. Nobody can tell you for sure what legislation, if any, even exits. Supermarkets would rather not talk about the issue, while Greenpeace campaigners claim the words GM spell environmental and health disaster. The only thing we know for sure is that GM food is a multi-billion dollar industry, it is here, and here to stay. As Arabian Business reveals, the Middle East is now in the grips of the GM effect, with some experts even suggesting that genetic modification of foods takes place after foods have been imported into the GCC, in order to increase profits.

"Of course there are many GM products in the UAE," says Dr Jamal Al Saeedi, consultant at the Emirates Society for Consumer Protection (ESCP). He can say that again. Over 40% of food products in the UAE have been found to be genetically modified (GM), however, the absence of proper labeling has disguised the presence of GM substances. "Throughout the past years we've received many complaints on the presence of GM in products such as dairy inside the country," says Al Saeedi.

Only recently, the UAE has, yet again for the third consecutive year, been declared as the US' biggest trading partner in the Arab world with approximately US$14.8bn in American imports, according to a study by a US-based entity called the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy. In 2006, each resident in the UAE spent around US$2500 on US goods. The figure is expected to reach US$3000 plus this year.

This said, the fact that over 40% of UAE food is GM comes as little surprise. It is estimated that 70% of processed foods in the US include at least one genetically engineered (GE) ingredient. And while most common GE crops in the US are soybean, corn, cotton, and canola - many processed food products contain soybean or corn ingredients - experiments to produce GM animals are becoming more frequent. With projects like Enviropig and modified salmon, currently underway, entire animals that have been genetically modified could one day turn up on our supermarket shelves, especially that laws mandating labeling are absent in the US (with California being the exception ­- the state bans all GM products).

Recently, however, it seems that the concerned federal authorities in the US have begun to seriously consider drafting detailed laws that would determine the percentage of GM meat and dairy products that are allowed to safely enter the food market. Scientists believe that if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drafts the rules, doors will open up for big investors to pour their money into a new market, namely transgenic livestock.

History

Genetic modification of foods can be traced as far back at the 19th century when Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel, first experimented on peas. Mendel's work codified what farmers had practiced for generations through cross-breeding and in doing so deduced the discrete inherent factors responsible for the results.

In 1953 the idea of human engineering of genes became possible following the identification of the double helix structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick. It took two decades for the results to yield themselves in the lab, which won them the Nobel Prize in 1962. In the 1990s, biotechnology made its way from the lab to the fields and onto the supermarket shelves. From the fields to the shelves, the first certified GM product was the delayed-ripening tomato, Flavr Savr, created by Calgene in 1994.

A variety of the tomato was also used to make tomato puree which was sold all over the world before controversy erupted and the debate of over GM began to rage. Despite the continued debates, supermarket shelves have been awash with food containing GM ingredients ever since.

Between 1996 and 2005, the total surface area of land cultivated with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) increased 50 times, from 4.2 million acres to 222 million acres, 55% of which was in the US. Although most GM crops are grown in the US, in recent years there has been notable growth of the industry in developing countries such as Brazil and Argentina.

Legislation: where are we now?

Current legislation surrounding GM foods remains blurred and undefined, particularly when it comes to informing the public about what exactly they are eating.

While the development of GM foods and ingredients continues, the introduction of mandatory labeling laws, providing consumers with information in some countries and not in others, has caused confusion. The US and the EU lead the way for very different reasons. The US, which accounts for two thirds of bioengineered crops produced globally, does not require mandatory labeling of GM foods, except in limited cases. The FDA requires labeling if the food has significantly different nutritional properties, if it contains an allergen that consumers would not expect to be present (for example, a peanut protein in a soybean product), or if a food contains a toxicant beyond an acceptable limit.

In contrast the EU has, according to Greenpeace, the "toughest" labeling legislations in place which stipulates that any food product containing over 0.9% of GMO's be labeled.

The labeling legislation in the EU was quickly introduced in 1997 following the backlash of consumers and environmental groups when GM soy beans were first imported into Europe a year after the first GM product hit the shelves.

Countries across the world now find themselves caught between the US and the EU approach. Currently 40 countries have adopted labeling regulations but according to experts, the degree of implementation varies greatly. There are three groups that countries with GM food on the agenda can be divided into - those with enforced labeling policies, those with partially enforced or non-enforced policies, and countries with plans to introduce labeling.

For this region, it seems GM food remains low on the agenda. Amina Ahmad Mohammad, head of the food environment laboratory at Dubai Municipality, says: "There are no laws in the UAE and the Gulf region that prohibit or allow GM foods or have a labeling law. The only country attempting to mandate such a law in the GCC is Saudi Arabia, but that is still under discussion. When the laws are implemented internationally, they will be implemented in the UAE."

Dr Jamal Al Saeedi at ESCP does however expect the UAE's stance to become clearer in the near future: "At the end of the year something may happen due to a clear strategy, which Sheikh Mohammed is in full support of and the many legislations from the UAE cabinet."