September 18, 2003	Thursday	Rajab 20, 1424

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LAHORE, Sept 17: Genetically modified foods are reportedly being imported and marketed in the country freely due to the absence of any system for quality check.

Standards have been prescribed for checking the quality of normal foodstuffs but no parameters exist for checking the quality of genetically modified cheese, butter, poultry products, fish, meat and agricultural products being imported from Europe and the US and sold at big departmental stores.

Sources said the marketing of GM food in Pakistan had been ‘confirmed by Japan’.

Food inspectors collect samples of locally-manufactured products for analysis but do not take the samples of imported foodstuff because standards have not been prescribed for checking their quality. Moreover, most of the laboratories lack expertise and facilities to check the quality of GM food.

A controversy has been raging in the developed countries about the effects of the use of the GM food for the past several years. Many countries have imposed restrictions on the import of such food without proper tests and clearance.

Producers of genetically modified plants and livestock, however, describe these the ideal products capable of resisting diseases and high yielding. They are of the view that their products can help meet the growing food requirements of the world due to fast increasing population due to exceptionally high productivity rate.

The opponents of such foods, however, are of the view that these lack the qualities of natural foods because of fast growth and multiplication rate. They said that qualities of such foods could be entirely different from the natural foods because of the change in chemistry as a result of genetic engineering.

The critics of such foods are of the opinion that effects of the use of the same could be entirely different from that of the natural foods. Consumption of such foods could even be harmful due to the change in the basic chemistry.

For example, the broiler meat popular among the consumers on account of lower prices and among the breeders on account of fast growth and rapid weight-gain could not be as nourishing as the meat of ordinary chicken takes several months to gain the weight equal to a six-week broiler.