What foods are GMO?

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 93% of U.S. soy, 93% of U.S. cotton, 95% of U. S. sugar beets, and 86% of U.S. corn grown is GMO. It’s estimated that as much as 90% of U.S. canola is GMO.

GMO sweet corn was introduced for the first time in the 2012 season. Corn and soy also appear in many processed foods in different forms.

Some ingredients that indicate the presence of corn include corn flour, corn meal, corn syrup, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, sorbitol, malt, malt syrup, malt extract, dextrin, maltodextrin, mono- and diglycerides, some baking powders (cornstarch often is added as a filler), food starch, starch, modified food starch, confectioners’ sugar, monosodium glutamate, and vitamins that do not state “corn-free.”

Some ingredients that indicate the presence of soy include soy sauce, tamari, shoyu, teriyaki marinades, soy drinks, tofu, tempeh, miso (except garbanzo miso), soy protein isolate and protein isolate, textured vegetable protein, and lecithin.

Unless the sugar on an ingredient label is identified as cane sugar, it’s likely to be GM sugar. About 54 percent of the U.S. sugar supply is from sugar beets and GM sugar beets account for 95 percent of the 2011 U.S. crop.