Objective: To identify ingredients from products and by-products derived from GM crops in packaged food products and to analyse the presence of these ingredients in the foods most commonly consumed by the Brazilian population.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: A search of the scientific literature to identify the use of products and by-products derived from GM crops in foods in Brazil and a study of food labels in a supermarket belonging to one of the ten largest supermarket chains in Brazil.
Subjects: To identify the ingredients present in packaged food products and their nomenclatures, the labels of all packaged food products available for sale in a supermarket were analysed. Subsequently, the presence of potential GM ingredients in the foods most commonly consumed by the Brazilian population was analysed.
Results: A total of twenty-eight GM crops' by-products with applications in the food industry (from soyabeans, corn, cotton and a yeast) were identified. Such by-products are presented as food ingredients or additives on food labels with 101 distinct nomenclatures. Most of the variety (63·8 %) and the quantity (64·5 %) of the foods most commonly consumed by Brazilians may contain a least one GM ingredient.
Conclusions: The presence of at least one potential GM ingredient was observed in more than half of the variety of foods most commonly consumed by the Brazilian population. Such ingredients were identified with distinct nomenclatures and incomplete descriptions, which may make it difficult to identify potential GM foods and confuse consumers when making food choices.
Keywords: Food labelling; Food labels; GM foods; GM organisms.