New Value-Added Biotech Foods: What Do Consumers Think and Want?

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New Value-Added Biotech Foods What Do Consumers
Think and Want?

• Gregory Jaffe
• Director, Biotechnology Project
• Center for Science in the Public Interest
• September 16, 2003.

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Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)

• Food and nutrition consumer organization.
• Nutrition Action Healthletter.
• No government or industry funding.

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CSPIs Biotechnology Project

• Purpose
• Identifying benefits and risks
• Establishing strong regulatory systems in US and
  abroad
• Educating and informing the public
• Positions
• Current crops in US appear safe to eat and
  environmental risks are manageable
• Some benefits from current crops
• Future products need to be assessed individually
• Regulatory systems in US and abroad need
  strengthening to address next generation of
  products

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Consumers and Biotech Foods

• Safe Food
• Safe Environment
• Personal Benefits
• Education and Information
• Truthfulness

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Safe Food

• New foods tested before marketed
• Independent agency determination that food is
  safe
• Mandatory regulatory system
• Government oversight of companies marketing the
  new food
• Equity in treatment of products

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Safe Environment

• Americans care about environment
• Government needs to ensure that new biotech foods
  dont harm environment

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Personal Benefits

• Maximize benefit while minimizing risk
• First on personal level
• Then on societal level
• No activity is without any risk

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Current Biotech Products

• Bt cotton
• Bt corn
• Roundup Ready soybeans, corn, and canola
• Virus resistant papayas and squash
• Personal benefits to farmers and societal
  benefits (from environmental advantages)

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What consumers would consider a benefit

• Economic -- less costly food
• Consumption traits taste, look, etc
• Nutritional qualities healthier foods
• Greater variety new foods
• None of the biotech foods to date has any of
  these qualities.

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Future Biotech Products

• High lycopene tomatoes
• High oleic oil
• Fast growing salmon
• Iron-rich rice
• Allergin-free peanuts
• Firmer fruit
• ?????

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Products consumers might want

• Better tasting tomato
• Melons that dont rot so quickly
• Corn Flakes that cost half the price
• Inexpensive fruit
• Ice cream without cholesterol

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A disconnect

• Developers are not listening to what consumers
  want?
• Science cannot achieve what consumers would want?
• What consumers want will not provide a sufficient
  rate of return for private companies?
• Public sector is not working on consumer
  beneficial products?

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The Bottom Line

• Prediction There will be no value-added biotech
  foods marketed in the US in next five years.

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Education and Information

• Need education on biotechnology
• Need education on agriculture
• Need education on the food we currently eat
• Need information about the benefits of the
  biotech foods
• Need to know which specific foods are biotech

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Truthfulness (not misleading)

• Claims must be standardized
• What is high?
• Need a baseline for comparison
• How much above baseline 1, 5, 100
• How much of value-added ingredient must be used?
• Must you use all GE tomatoes?
• How to ensure claims are valid?
• Documentation, inspections, testing?

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Gregory JaffeDirectorCSPI Biotechnology Project

• Website www.cspinet.org/biotech/index.html
• E-mail address
• gjaffe_at_cspinet.org