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By Julie Vorman
WASHINGTON, Mar 26 (Reuters) - Three-fourths of Americans want to know whether their food contains gene-spliced ingredients, according to a public opinion poll released Monday by the Pew Charitable Trust, a non-profit group trying to find common ground among biotech food advocates and critics.
The Pew initiative on biotech foods is a newly formed group that aims to bring together giant biotech companies, green groups and federal policymakers to debate the pros and cons of gene-altered foods.
As its first project, the group commissioned a telephone survey of 1,001 Americans in January to assess how consumers view biotech foods.
Some 75% of respondents said it was somewhat or very important to them to know if their food has been genetically altered. Only 21% of those surveyed said it was not important.
Mike Rodemeyer, director of initiative, said the survey did not ask consumers if they wanted more information in the form of labels on food products.
Mandatory labeling has become more widely debated since the recall of hundreds of US taco shells, snack chips and other corn flour products last autumn for contamination with an unapproved variety of biotech corn. StarLink, a variety made by Aventis SA , was linked to more than two dozen claims of allergic reactions by consumers.
The Pew poll showed that 73% of respondents were somewhat or very concerned about the StarLink food recall, said Neil Newhouse, who helped conduct the survey. And 22% said the recall and its aftermath caused them to change their food purchasing habits, he told reporters.
Mandatory labels have been fiercely opposed by the US food industry, which contends such labels would raise concerns about the safety of bio-foods and scare away shoppers. Instead of labels, food makers say toll-free telephone numbers and Internet Web sites can offer enough information for curious consumers.
Labels on genetically altered foods have been adopted by Britain, Japan, South Korea, Australia and most of Europe.
Environmental and consumer groups have unsuccessfully urged the Food and Drug Administration to require labels in the same way other useful information is provided on the product. In January, the FDA rejected mandatory labels, saying they were unnecessary unless gene-spliced foods contained potential allergens or had significant nutritional changes.
The agency took the action despite overwhelming agreement among its own consumer focus groups that gene-spliced foods should be labeled in the interest of fair disclosure.
The FDA is currently reviewing public comments on its labeling policy.
The Pew initiative survey mirrored a series of recent public opinion polls showing Americans are not sure about the safety of biotech foods and want to know more about them.
A survey by the food industry's International Food Information Council Foundation found last month that 58% of Americans surveyed thought gene-altered foods should be labeled as such.
The Pew survey also asked consumers about the safety of bio-foods.
Some 46% of respondents said they did not know, while 29% said genetically engineered foods were safe and 25% said they were unsafe.
But when told that bio-foods are already widely found in grocery stores, a significant number of respondents changed their minds and said gene-altered food was safe.
"Consumers don't have strong views about the safety of genetically modified foods," Rodemeyer told reporters. "It suggests that consumer opinion on safety may be up for grabs."
The Pew initiative will hold a series of conferences and workshops to try and find common ground among the food industry and environmental groups, Rodemeyer said.
Former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, a Democrat, and former Minnesota Rep. Vin Weber, a Republican, will lead an advisory panel for the Pew initiative. Last year, Glickman created an agricultural biotech advisory panel to make recommendations to the US Department of Agriculture.
The Pew survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%.
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