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Submission to the Review of Food Labeling Law and Policy In the interests of the health and wellbeing of our community and so that consumers can make informed choices when buying food I write to submit items I believe require mandatory labeling. i)Genetically modified (GM) food I believe all GM foods including those exempted from the Australian Food Labeling Guidelines standard 1.5.2. should be labeled as such. This needs to include meat, milk, cheese, eggs from animals fed GM food. The use of genetically modified food is the subject of enormous global controversy. Transnational organizations such as Monsanto and Novartis claim that their products will make agriculture sustainable, eliminate world hunger, vastly improve public health and cure disease. It has become obvious that through their political lobbying and business practices they intend to dominate the market with their GM products. GM products clearly have the potential to be toxic and a threat to human health. Although no clinical trials on humans exist, from the few safety tests that have been conducted on animals the results on GM food are disturbing-laboratory animals fed GM diets show damage to virtually every system studied. Reports from farmers show sick sterile and dead animals are traced to GM feed. In 2009 the American Academy of Environmental Medicine called for mandatory labeling of GM food. The group’s white paper cited numerous animal studies linking GM foods to altered structure and function of the liver, kidney, pancreas and spleen; decrease in fertility; an increase in allergy asthma and inflammation and a difference in the way some 400 genes work that control protein synthesis and modification, cell signaling. cholesterol synthesis and insulin regulation With the overwhelming evidence of problems since their introduction in 1996 it is likely that GM foods are contributing to the deterioration of health in the US. Without human clinical trials or post marketing surveillance we can’t tell which worsening health statistic can be due to these foods. But we can’t wait until we find out. GM foods must be removed from our diet. Mandatory labeling of GM foods as such means that people can make healthy non-GM choices for themselves and their families. ii)Fructose There is abundant correlative evidence that a growing dependence on fructose is fuelling the current obesity epidemic. Average daily consumption from all sources has increased dramatically over the past 30 years, a major culprit being high fructose corn syrup HFCS. HFCS is used in many products, it is a convenient cheap ingredient because the corn from which it is made is subsidized. The rates of obesity have skyrocketed just as our percentage of calories has gone down according to Dr Lustig professor of Clinical Pediatrics University of California Fructose is a dose dependent chronic hepatotoxin that is metabolized like fat and leads to all the manifestations of metabolic syndrome Dr Lustig said in an address to the American Academy of Paediatrics. Fructose is seven times more likely than glucose to form advanced glycosolation end products which promote atherosclerosis. Furthermore fructose malabsorption a digestive disorder with symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome is found in 30-40% of the population with about half exhibiting symptoms. And much of the corn from which HFCS is made is likely to be genetically modified. As well two of the enzymes used to make the syrup alpha-amylase and glucose –isomeerase are GM to make them more stable at higher temperatures Producers of processed food are not currently required by law to mark foods containing fructose in excess of glucose in Australia. My recommendation is that food containing fructose be labeled as such to enable people to make choices to control fructose intolerance, to track total calories consumed and to avoid covert consumption of hepatotoxins. .References can be supplied on request