GMOs in South Africa: what's in your food, what the label means, and what the evidence says

This is the first in a new series on food ingredients, written the same way as our guides to what's in soap and skincare: what the thing is, where it is, how to read the label, and what the evidence says, with the studies linked. GMOs are the natural place to start, because South Africa is one of the biggest growers of genetically modified crops in the world, most of us eat them daily, and almost everything written about them online is either a sales pitch or a scare. An earlier version of this article was the scare. This is the replacement.

What a GMO is

A genetically modified organism is a plant (or animal, or microbe) whose DNA has been changed in a laboratory rather than by conventional breeding: usually by adding a gene from another organism, switching one off, or, with newer gene-editing tools, making a precise change to the plant's own DNA. In food crops, the changes have mostly been for 2 traits: tolerance to a herbicide (so the field can be sprayed and only the weeds die) and resistance to insects (the plant makes a protein, Bt, that kills caterpillars and borers). Newer traits include drought tolerance, disease resistance, and nutrition changes such as vitamin A-rich "golden rice".

It's worth being clear what it isn't. Almost nothing we eat is "natural" in the sense of unaltered: maize, wheat, bananas and brassicas are all products of thousands of years of selection and crossing, and since the 1950s thousands of conventional varieties have been bred by blasting seeds with radiation or chemicals to cause random mutations. GM is more precise than that, not less. The questions worth asking are about the specific trait, the farming that comes with it, and who owns the seed, not about the technique itself.

Where you'll find it: the South African picture

South Africa has grown GM crops commercially since 1998 and 4 are approved: maize, soya, cotton and canola. In the 2021/22 season, 84.5% of South Africa's maize was GM (89% of white maize, 77% of yellow), about 95% of soya, and 100% of cotton. White maize is the staple: pap, mealie meal, samp and maize rice are, in all likelihood, from GM maize unless the pack says otherwise. Soya goes into oil, soy milk, tofu, meat substitutes, lecithin (in chocolate and most processed foods) and animal feed. Canola oil, cottonseed oil, corn syrup and glucose, maltodextrin and modified starch are the other common routes into the shopping basket. Most meat, eggs and dairy in South Africa come from animals fed GM maize and soya.

Not GM in South Africa: wheat, rice, potatoes, sugar, fruit and vegetables. No GM wheat is grown commercially anywhere, so bread is not GM, and the "GMO-free" claims on fruit and vegetables are true of the whole category, not a distinction.

How to read the label

South Africa's rules are set under the Consumer Protection Act (regulations of 2011). The wording means something specific:

• "Contains genetically modified organisms" is compulsory when a food is 5% or more GM. This is the label most pap and maize meal should carry, and in practice many don't.
• "Contains less than 5% GMO" is voluntary.
• "May contain genetically modified ingredients" is allowed where testing isn't practical, which is why it's the phrase you see most.
• "GMO free" or "non-GMO" may only be claimed if testing shows less than 1% GM content. On a food that has no GM version anywhere (a tomato, say), the claim is a marketing decoration.
• Certified organic food excludes GM seed and GM feed by the organic standards, which is the surest route if avoiding GM matters to you.

What the evidence says

Safety of eating it. The most thorough review is the 2016 report of the US National Academies of Sciences, which examined more than 900 studies and 2 decades of data from the United States, where GM maize and soya dominate, against Western Europe, where they're barely eaten. It found no substantiated evidence that foods from GM crops are less safe than foods from conventional crops, and no pattern in the rates of cancer, obesity, gut disease, kidney disease, allergies or autism between the 2 populations that could be tied to GM foods. The World Health Organization's position is the same: the GM foods on the market have passed safety assessments and no effects on health have been shown in the populations eating them, with each new product assessed on its own.

The rat studies that drive most of the "GMOs are bad for you" articles, including the ones the earlier version of this article leaned on, were small, used unusual rat strains, and have not been reproduced; the most famous was retracted by its journal. That's not a reason to assume everything is fine forever. It is a reason not to cite them.

What the evidence does support worrying about is the farming, not the food. Herbicide-tolerant crops led to much heavier use of glyphosate and the spread of glyphosate-resistant weeds, which has in turn pushed farmers to older, harsher herbicides. Glyphosate itself was classed "probably carcinogenic to humans" by the WHO's cancer agency in 2015, a classification that the EU and US regulators have not adopted, and the argument continues. Bt crops, on the other hand, measurably reduced insecticide spraying. And GM seed is patented, which concentrates the seed supply in a handful of companies and stops farmers saving seed, a real issue for small farmers, and a political one rather than a health one.

Yield. The National Academies found no evidence that GM crops had raised the rate of yield growth beyond what conventional breeding was already delivering. Bt traits protect yield from pests in bad years; they don't add to it in good ones.

The rules elsewhere

European Union. GM crops aren't banned, which is the commonest myth. The EU has authorised more than 100 GM products for import, mostly for animal feed; cultivation is a different matter, with only 1 Bt maize grown, in Spain and Portugal, and most member states opting out. Anything over 0.9% GM must be labelled.

United States. Grown and eaten at scale for 25 years. A "bioengineered" disclosure on packaging has been compulsory since 2022, after decades without one.

Japan, Australia and others approve GM foods for import and label them, with thresholds similar to the EU's. The "two dozen countries have banned GMOs" line from older articles confuses restrictions on growing with bans on eating.

So should you avoid it?

For your health, on the evidence we have: no, and if you eat pap you aren't avoiding it anyway. For reasons outside health, you might reasonably want to: the herbicide load that comes with herbicide-tolerant crops, the concentration of the seed industry, or a preference for organic farming. Those are legitimate, and certified organic is the label that delivers them. What we'd ask is that you decide for the real reasons, not because a 2018 blog post told you rats got sick.

Our own products: bovine collagen, bicarbonate of soda, castor oil, Celtic sea salt and castile soap aren't crop products with a GM version, so a "non-GMO" sticker on them would mean nothing, and we don't use one.

Frequently asked questions

Is GM maize safe to eat?
The GM maize grown in South Africa has been eaten here for more than 20 years and in the United States for longer. The reviews above found no evidence of harm from eating it.

Is pap GMO?
Unless it says otherwise, almost certainly: 89% of South Africa's white maize was GM in the 2021/22 season.

What's the difference between GMO and gene-edited?
Gene editing (CRISPR) changes a plant's own DNA precisely, without adding foreign genes. South Africa currently regulates it as GM; some countries don't. The health questions are the same: judge the trait, not the tool.

Does "non-GMO" mean organic?
No. Non-GMO is a claim about the seed; organic is a standard for the whole farm (no GM, and restrictions on synthetic pesticides and fertilisers). Organic includes non-GMO; the reverse isn't true.

Is glyphosate in my food?
Residues are found in some foods made from herbicide-tolerant crops, at levels regulators consider safe. Whether those levels are the right ones is where the scientific argument now sits, and it's an argument about herbicide, not about genetic modification.

The sources

• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2016). Genetically Engineered Crops: Experiences and Prospects. Washington DC: The National Academies Press. The 900-study review. View →
• World Health Organization. Food, genetically modified: questions and answers. View →
• Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy / CropLife SA (2024). GM crop area assessment, 2021/22 season. The South African planting figures. View →
• FACTS SA. GMO series part 3: the regulatory perspective. Plain-language summary of the Consumer Protection Act GMO labelling regulations (R. 293 of 2011). View →

Find out more

• Ingredient guides: what's in your soap, skincare and food
• Foods that support your immune system: what the research says
• The alkaline diet: what it can and can't do

This article is general information, not medical or legal advice. Labelling rules change; check the current regulations before relying on a claim.

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