Also, be aware that salad dressings and mayonnaise often contain oil that is derived from GMO soy, corn, cottonseed, or canola oil.
If you avoid GMO oils, I find that it is difficult to eat in most Mexican and Chinese restaurants. Mediterranean restaurants, including Italian, Middle Eastern, and Greek, often use olive oil. Thai restaurants often use GMO oils, but most do not use any oils in their curry dishes. They cook the food in coconut milk. Also, some Thai soups do not use oil. Fish entrees can often be grilled, steamed, poached, or sautéed without oil as well. Deep fried foods like french fries are very difficult to obtain non-GMO because of the oil.
Most sugar in the US comes from GMO sugar beets. To avoid GMO sugar, avoid desserts and soft drinks made with sugar or artificial sweeteners. (Unfortunately, cane sugar is often sprayed with Roundup before harvest.) Commercial soft drinks and sodas are usually sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or a combination of sugar and HFCS. The corn, of course, will be from GMO sources.
Diet drinks may contain aspartame, which is produced with the help of GMO bacteria. Aspartame is sometimes called amino sweet, Equal and NutraSweet, and is linked to serious diseases.
Most processed foods contain GMO ingredients (corn or soy for example). This includes meat substitutes used in veggie burgers and tofu, as well as condiments like ketchup and soy sauce. Try to avoid processed foods with the oils mentioned above, or with soy and corn derivatives, including: soy flour, soy protein, soy lecithin, textured vegetable protein, corn meal, corn syrup, dextrose, maltodextrin, fructose, citric acid, and lactic acid. Ask what foods the chef prepares fresh, and choose those items. Check if packaged sauces are used.
Commercial beef, pork, and poultry are fed with GMO feed. This includes corn, soymeal (leftover from processing soybeans into oil), alfalfa hay, cottonseed, and sugar beet pulp (leftover from extracting the juice for sugar). Dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), a by-product of the corn-based ethanol industry, are also mixed with feed for animals.
Ask if the source is wild caught or pasture-raised. Organic products don’t allow the use of GMO feed. Sometimes meats are labeled grass-fed. They are often “finished” with GMO grain. Look for “100% grass-fed.” There is still a small chance that grass-fed could include GMO alfalfa, though it is usually used for dairy cows.
A GMO fast-growing salmon is approved for consumption in the US and Canada and has already been sold in Canada through restaurants and catering institutions. The producer, AquaBounty, is expected to sell the salmon soon in the US, but will circumvent the new GMO salmon labeling requirements for stores by selling through restaurants and caterers. To avoid it, make sure the salmon wild. GMO salmon is raised in tanks and will be considered “farm-raised.”
Wild caught is better for all fish, since farmed raised fish can be fed pellets made from GMO soy.
Non-browning Arctic apples and non-bruising potatoes have both been created with genetic engineering technology. The apples are engineered not to turn brown when sliced. These will usually be sold as pre-sliced apples. Genetically engineered potatoes do not show bruising, and may be used in many potato dishes.
Other GMO produce include papaya grown in Hawaii or China, zucchini, and yellow squash, a pink pineapple from Del Monte, and corn. Although more than 90% of the corn in United States is genetically engineered, the percentage of GMO sweet corn, used for corn on the cob and for canned corn, is much less. Edamame may also come from GMO soy.