Exposed: Government's GM Loyalty Card Link

Friends of the Earth has highlighted government plans to use supermarket loyalty cards to help investigate the possible health effects of eating genetically modified foods.

Friends of the Earth sounded the alarm after official minutes of a key government committee showed that Sainsbury, Tesco and Safeway had "agreed in principle" to allow information from their loyalty cards on customers who buy GM foods to be matched with potential health problems such as childhood allergies, birth defects and cancer. The Government's official Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes asked for information on food sales "in a form that can be analysed on a product by product basis at postcode level".

All three companies have since distanced themselves from the alleged agreement, and the plans have collapsed.