No UK supermarket is willing to say it will stock gene-edited food

Adam Vaughan is a writer.

The UK's biggest supermarkets have reacted coolly to the idea of selling gene-edited food, with none willing to publicly say it will stock the new products despite an upcoming law change enabling the products to be sold in the country for the first time.

George Eustice, the environment minister, said food from gene-edited crops could be in shops next year. The technology is being used to improve health and reduce environmental impacts.

New Scientist contacted 11 of the UK's biggest supermarkets to ask if they would stock gene-edited food after the bill becomes law, but none of them responded. We currently have no plans to use this technology, according to a statement from Waitrose.

Seven of the chains didn't reply at all. New Scientist referred them to the British Retail Consortium. The law change is being looked at by Tesco to see how it will affect the store.

Andrew Opie at the BRC initially responded to inquiries about the industry's position on selling gene-edited food by saying there are merits to exploring the technology and it was supportive of the technology. The revised statement suggested that public support would be key to commercial success.

Opie said in the new statement that customer acceptance for the technology and a thorough understanding of the economic and environmental impacts will determine its future.

A government consultation last year showed that 88 percent of individuals and 64 percent of businesses were against changing the law to allow the use of genes from other species. A group of 80 people who took part in a government awareness workshop were willing to eat gene-edited food at a higher rate than before.

Government polling shows that most consumers want labels. There is no scientific method to detect the changes to a crop's genome that are caused by gene-edited food.

The UK's Food Standards Agency will create a public register of gene-edited organisms, which supermarkets can use to decide if they want to work with their supply chains or not. It's not clear how costly that would be.