澳洲大型连锁超市Coles对转基因疑惑的答复

      上周六，我和老婆去住处附近的Coles超市买东西，建议她买一瓶橄榄油之外的食用油每天换着吃，而不是一年四季只吃橄榄油，当我们只能选非转基因的。我们看了两种，一种是葵花油（sunflower oil），另外一种是菜籽油（Canola oil），2升装，价格均在6澳币左右，比较便宜，老婆选的是菜籽油。在国际市场上，菜籽油、大豆油和玉米油大多是转基因的，所以我对买回来的菜籽油不太放心，就给超市网站的客服留了一个短信，希望对方确认一下超市售卖的菜籽油是不是用转基因原料加工出来的。等了几天，到了今天，这家澳洲大型连锁超市给我来了正式答复，是这样的：

Dear Mr ......,

Thank you for contacting us, regarding Genetically Modified Foods. Coles works with our suppliers to have our Coles Brand food products made from non-GM ingredients and additives.

Coles also has a strong preference for non-GM based animal feeds, with beef, lamb and dairy cows, predominately pasture fed. The remainder of our suppliers at a minimum have assured us that they actively seek to source non-GM ingredients where possible.

 
All our Coles brand food products must comply with our GM food policy including the GM requirements specified in standard 1.5.2 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code). These requirements, include labelling integrity and legibility issues and you can find more information on 'the Code' in the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) website, www.foodstandards.gov.au

We also require that our Coles brand product suppliers conduct their own rigorous measures that include, amongst other aspects, effective documentation, prevention of crosscontamination and a verification testing program. Please note that our control is limited by the history of ingredients and products proceeding and beyond our supplier and store levels. We cannot absolutely, at all times, guarantee that any unintentional cross contamination may have occurred.

 However, we can offer some additional confidence, as Coles also conducts GM testing of our Coles brand foods, as part of our routine Coles brand food-testing program and to-date no Genetically Modified material has been detected.

We do hope this information has helped to alleviate your concerns and thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Regards

Lucinda Moses
 

     很显然，这家超市很认真地告诉我，该超市售卖的菜籽油等其它食用油不是来自转基因原料的。当然，我也只能姑且信之了，下次肯定买葵花籽油，这比较保险一点，因为澳洲政府并没有强制要求厂家和商家对转基因产品进行标注，尽管澳洲人也比较抗拒转基因产品，不过澳洲人大多吃橄榄油，许多澳洲新西兰的商家厂家卖出的熟食品等食品都主动标注用非转基因原料加工。Coles对我疑惑的两次认真回复（头一次告诉我他们正在交给公司的专业部门核实确认），让我感触很多！