Back in July, GMO Journal spoke with Andrei V. Rado, the plaintiffs’ attorney in the California case against ConAgra Foods Inc. The lawsuit challenges the labeling of ConAgra’s line of Wesson cooking oils which proclaims to be “pure” and “100% natural” despite the allegation that it is made from genetically modified corn and soybeans. The California case is one of the two cases to take on the food giant over its labeling claims. The second case was filed in New York.
In this video, Mr. Rado discusses the nature of the lawsuit and how the potentially deceptive labeling may violate state laws. As Mr. Rado states, “anything that is genetically engineered in the laboratory and takes things from different species is not 100% natural.”
The lawsuit alleges that in declaring a product “100% natural”, a label that is not explicitly defined by the Food and Drug Administration, is bound to confuse some customers who seek to eat healthy and avoid GMOs.
When something that is genetically modified is labeled as 100% natural, we allege that this deprives the consumer of the ability to make that very important personal decision.