Eating Non-GM in Restaurants

Eating non-GM in restaurants not only helps address you and your family’s health concerns, it also can influence the decisions of everyone in the food industry chain – restaurants, food manufacturers, distributors, and farmers. Restaurants have changed to non-GM ingredients to make their customers happy.

Here's one such story from Jeffrey Smith, founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology and author of Seeds of Deception: "I asked the owner of a local restaurant to take GM foods off his menu, explaining that there were several people in town that avoided them. He invited me into his kitchen to see what that would involve. He then switched from soy oil to olive and sunflower oils, replaced his zucchini with an organic source, and started using organic milk. Since his menu items used almost no packaged foods, the changes were simple and inexpensive. I wrote a short article about it for a local weekly paper, which he posted on his window. He saw an immediate increase in business.

"Not to be outdone, a competing restaurant one block away also removed GM foods. I wrote an article for them as well. Two nearby restaurants then switched to non-GM oil and organic dairy. In fact, they raised the prices on a few entrees by $.50 to cover the increased costs and posted signs explaining what they had done. Customers loved it. Now other restaurants in town are making the switch.

"I never once had to discuss any safety issues about GM foods. It was enough for the restaurant owners to know that their customers preferred not to eat GM foods, or that a competitor was responding to that preference."

When eating at restaurants, it's handy to have a knowledgeable waiter, waitress, or chef, guide you through the menu to help you avoid those GM foods on your "Don't Eat" list. It is not too hard to identify the non-GMO options.

What You Can Do
Below is information on what GM ingredients to avoid in restaurants, and how to communicate with restaurant employees. You can download information to give to restaurant owners that will explain the issue and help them to make a switch. There is also information you can give to waiters or waitresses to help them accommodate your desire for non-GMO food.

Cooking Oil
The first question usually is, "What oil do you cooked with?" If they use soy, cottonseed, canola, or corn oils, ask if they have anything that is cooked without oil, or if olive oil or some other oil can be used. If they say they cook in "vegetable oil" or margarine, it will almost always be soy, cottonseed, canola, or corn oils. If they have olive oil, be sure it's not a blend. Many restaurants blend canola and olive.

Dairy
To avoid dairy products from cows treated with genetically modified rbGH, in U.S. restaurants you will likely have to avoid menu items with dairy. Very few restaurants buy milk from non-treated cows, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Industrialized nations outside the U.S. have not approved the rbGH.

Processed Foods
Since most processed foods contain GM derivatives (corn and soy, for example), ask what foods are freshly prepared. But check if packaged sauces are used.

Other potential sources of GM foods at restaurants include salad dressings, bread, and mayonnaise.

Click here for a document you can either give to a restaurant or use when talking to a restaurant’s staff.