It may be one of the mainstays of traditional Maltese cuisine, but even bigilla sold in supermarkets now contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
This is not because the company has a secret laboratory where it tweaks the DNA of the ingredients for the popular crushed bean paste, but because of the soya oil used in the paste provided by local distributors.
“We are legally obliged to print that the product contains GM ingredients, as the oil we use has the notice itself,” a spokesman for Camel Brand said, adding they used whatever was available on the market.
The US National Agricultural Statistics Service reported that in 2009, 91 per cent of the soya crop was genetically modified, making it probable that soya oil imported into Malta contained some GMOs.
The EU Commission lists three varieties of GM soy contained in food imported to the EU, all of which have been tweaked to be resistant to herbicides, an attribute considered to be an advantage for large-scale farming.
In all, 39 GMOs are authorised in the EU, most of which originate from the US agricultural company Monsanto.
Antoine Vella from the University of Malta’s Institute of Earth Sciences said the process of genetically modifying crops “is similar to the splicing film editors used to do in the past when they had celluloid strips: cutting and pasting. The new organism has had its genes modified and is therefore known as a GMO.”
The new genetic structure, Dr Vella explained, would produce a totally new organism that was not found in nature.
This did not have to look very different from its natural cousins. As an example, farmers have been using bacteria to kill caterpillars: the bacteria produce a chemical (actually a crystal) that is toxic to the insects. Bacteria have a gene which regulates the production of this toxin, so scientists have taken this gene and inserted it into the DNA of maize.
“The new GMO maize looks and tastes exactly the same as the natural one but it produces the chemical (not found in natural plants) that kills caterpillars – this is the chemical ‘inherited’ from the microbes,” he said.
“The concern of environmentalists and consumers is that, although this chemical is not harmful to humans for the moment, it could become poison- ous in future – this would make GM maize inedible, admittedly a remote possibility.”
Female rats fed on GM soy, for example, gave birth to stunted, dead or sterile offspring, while another study linked GM corn to organ failure in rats.
Greenpeace, a vocal opponent of GMOs, says: “Once released into the environment, (they) could spread through nature and interbreed with natural organisms, thereby contaminating non-genetically engineered environments and future generations in unforeseeable and uncontrollable ways.
“Their release is ‘genetic pollution’ and is a major threat because GMOs cannot be recalled once released into the environment,” the international NGO says.
Greenpeace currently has an axe to grind with EU Commissioner John Dalli, who barely weeks into his appointment sparked its ire by lifting a 13-year ban on the cultivation of a GM potato, called Amflora, to be used for starch by industry.
Last month, Mr Dalli proposed plans to give individual EU member states the right to allow, restrict or ban the cultiv-ation of genetically modified organisms.
EU rules currently require products which contain traces of GM organisms to clearly state so on the label, but some have cast doubts on whether everyone abides by this regulation.