Date:  8 March 2001

IS  THE  BABY  FOOD  YOU  BUY  REALLY  NON-GM?

GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
Issued - 8th March, 2001.

Is the baby food you buy really non-GM? Greenpeace offers online advice

Greenpeace today released a guide to which baby food brands are fully
non-GM. The guide, which is part of Greenpeace's Shoppers Guide to GM, can
be accessed online or by sending a SAE to Greenpeace.

None of the baby food on sale in the UK directly contains GM ingredients.
However it can contain products, such as cheese, eggs or meat, from animals
fed on GM feed.

Baby foods which were found to be fully non-GM include the entire Boots
own-brand range and all organic ranges, such as Baby Organix, Cow and Gate
Olvarit Organic, Hipp Baby Food and Kallo rusks.

Brands who are striving to eliminate GM fed animal products from their
baby-food, but cannot currently state that they are fully non-GM include Cow
and Gate, Heinz and SMA Nutrition (excluding their organic ranges).

Only Superdrug and Danone baby yoghurts have not yet made a commitment to
Greenpeace to eliminate GM fed animal products from their baby-food.

Emma Gibson of Greenpeace explained,

"At the moment it is impossible for people who don't want to buy GM, for
environmental, ethical or health reasons, to tell whether they are buying
products which use GM crops in some part of the production process."

She continued, "If a product contains GM soya, tomatoes or maize it has to
be labelled, but if a product comes from animals fed on GM crops it is not."

"This definitive guide aims to expose the GM which is being hidden from us
and provide advice for those people who want to avoid it. Parents have a
right to know what they are feeding their children and the right to say no
to GM."

A recent NOP poll commissioned by Greenpeace this September found that more
than two thirds of the British public didn't want farm animals to be fed GM
crops. And an overwhelming 90% wanted products from animals fed on GM crops
to be clearly labelled.

Almost every major supermarket has now made moves to remove ingredients from
animals fed on GM crops, but most food companies have yet to follow suit.

The Greenpeace guide lists over a thousand products. Top food brands are
coded red if they are positive for GM, yellow if companies or products
currently use GM in animal feed but are committed to removing it, and green
for products that are non-GM.

People with internet access can visit a virtual supermarket through the
Greenpeace website http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/gm.htm. They can then choose
a virtual shopping aisle such as dairy or frozen foods to get lists of
relevant products and their GM status. Free printed copies of the webguide
are also available, to receive one send a 31p A4 SAE to Shoppers Guide,
Greenpeace, Canonbury Villas, London N1 2PN.

ENDS
EDITOR'S NOTES

Background briefings on the use of GM crops in animal feed are available.
For more information go to the Greenpeace UK website at
http://www.greenpeace.org,uk/gm.htm or call the Greenpeace press office on
0207 865 8255/6/7.

Background statistics on baby food:
Source: FSA (Flackett Stevens & Associates Ltd). Their data comes from
36,000 mothers with babies up to 30 months old in England, Scotland and
Wales. All data is in sterling and annual up to the end of December 2000.

1.    The total baby food market is now worth £168.6million, and has grown
+3.1% in the last year.

2.    Brands' shares are as follows:
Heinz - 50.6% (-2.1% versus the previous year)
Hipp Organic - 13.6% (+77.1%)
Cow & Gate standard - 8.8% (-18.8%)
Baby Organix - 6.5% (+7.3%)
Olvarit Organic - 6.5% (+7.3%)
Boots own - 5.5% (-13.3%)
Milupa - 2.2% (-53.1%)

3. The value sales of the organic brands in the last year is £42.2million,
that's £16.5million more than the previous year, ie. +64%. They now comprise
25% of total value sales of baby food.