Would You Eat "Better" and "Healthier" Ice Cream if it Contained a Fish Gene?

Published on: July 11, 2006

The ice cream case is changing - Unilever (the owner of Ben & Jerry’s, Good Humor, Breyers, Popsicle, Fudgsicle and Klondike) has applied to the Foods Standards Agency to ask for approval to market a biotech ice cream in the U.K. Biotech because it involves the genetic modification of a fish called ocean pout.

Ocean pout is an eel-like fish which survives in extremely cold water due to a protein that prevents freezing. By putting this protein in ice cream, Unilever says that it will be able to create more intense flavors, better textures and fancy shapes. And that's not all they're claiming, they say it can also cut fat and sugar content thus making "healthy" ice cream.

Now, instead of catching this fish, which Unilever says would be expensive, and cause overfishing by the way, they've used genetic modification to duplicate this protein.

Scientists in the U.K. are fighting Unilever's application hard, unlike the U.S. where this ice cream has already been available for three years. They are warning that the introduction of biotech ice cream could set off an "immunological time bomb." Allergies could be rampant because Unilever's safety checks are inadequate. Why? Because Unilever checked the safety of the protein against the blood of people allergic to cod, not to the pout fish that the ice cream contains. Not to mention, the genetic modification could change the proteins in the process and could pose a danger when consumed.

We're a bit tired of all these companies using "the environment," in this case in the shape of overfishing, as an excuse for trying to sell us artificial or genetically modified food like this. In our opinion, ice cream is an indulgence and not supposed to be "healthy." And furthermore, since when is genetically modified food considered "healthy"?

With the huge increase in the number of allergy sufferers, give me my ice cream the all-natural way with as few ingredients as possible please!

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