I started reading GMO labels after my daughter Kolbie was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2020, a few months after her type 1 diabetes diagnosis. My own celiac diagnosis came in 2014. Gluten was the first word I hunted for on packages. GMO was the acronym that followed me around the store. I spent years reading the safety reviews, the label rules, and the history of how three letters came to stand in for an entire way of eating. That reading changed the order in which I read a package. It also changed the questions I ask a company before I buy from it.
The safety reviews for approved GMO traits are more specific than the label debates suggest. The non-GMO label does not verify the thing my family worries about most: whether glyphosate was used on the crop before it reached my kitchen.
The label is newer than the breeding it describes
The European Union required GMO labels on food in the late 1990s. The United States federal disclosure law came later. Congress passed it in 2016, using the word bioengineered. USDA finished the roll out in January 2022. The sticker you see today is young. The breeding it refers to is older.
Radiation mutagenesis has been used to create new crop varieties since the 1920s. Scientists exposed seeds to gamma rays or chemicals, planted the survivors, and kept the ones with useful traits. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency maintain a database of thousands of these mutant varieties. Under U.S. organic standards, these varieties can be used in organic production, because mutagenesis does not use recombinant DNA and does not count as an excluded method.
Most people using the term genetically modified organism are referring to crops engineered with recombinant DNA starting in the 1990s: corn, soybeans, cotton, canola, sugar beets, and a few others. That is a much smaller set of foods than the sticker suggests.
Safety reviews happen trait by trait
In 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a review of research on genetically engineered crops. The committee wrote that it found "no evidence that currently marketed genetically engineered foods pose greater health risks than their conventionally bred counterparts." That consensus applies to the traits approved and in stores today.
Safety is specific to the gene and the plant. A corn variety engineered to produce a Bt protein has one review history. A papaya engineered to resist ringspot virus has another. A new trait in a new crop would need its own safety review before it could be sold. I stopped asking whether GMOs are safe as a category. I started asking what this particular modification is and what its review shows.
One fact matters for families like mine. No genetically modified wheat is grown commercially. The gluten that can make my daughter sick comes from wheat proteins. Those proteins are present in organic wheat, conventional wheat, and any wheat sold legally. GMO status has nothing to do with whether a food contains gluten. The gluten-free label and the non-GMO label answer two different questions.
What the non-GMO label does not check
A non-GMO label checks for the absence of certain bioengineered ingredients. It does not test for pesticide residues, soil health, or farming practices. One detail changed how I read the label.
Farmers sometimes apply glyphosate to crops that are not genetically modified. The practice, called pre-harvest desiccation, helps dry down wheat, oats, dry beans, and other crops before harvest. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's pesticide surveys document these applications on conventional farms. A bag of non-GMO oats can still have been treated with glyphosate before harvest. That gap matters to me.
The acronym tells me about breeding. It tells me nothing about the sprays. When I started asking suppliers about glyphosate, the answer came from their production records and sourcing documentation, not from the front of the package.
Why our family still chooses non-GMO and glyphosate-free ingredients
After that kind of decade, I want to know where every ingredient came from and what it went through before it reached my kitchen. Our choice to seek out non-GMO and glyphosate-free ingredients is a transparency habit, not a fear-based verdict.
Clean Monday Meals is built on that same instinct. Every product is gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free. The seasonings are non-GMO, and the ingredients are required to be glyphosate-free. The ramen noodles are made from one ingredient, organic brown rice flour, in an allergen-free facility. That level of specificity costs more to maintain. It is worth it for a family that reads labels because we have to.
You can read more about how we source our ingredients on our About page, and you can browse hundreds of gluten-free, dairy-free recipes in the free Recipe App.
A five-minute label check for my kitchen
Here is the order I use now. It takes longer to explain than to do.
- Read the ingredient list first. Front of package claims are marketing. The ingredient list is the closest thing to a recipe for what is inside.
- Check the allergens. For us, that means gluten, dairy, and soy. The gluten-free label frames the question. The ingredient list answers it.
- Do not confuse non-GMO with not sprayed. Ask the maker about glyphosate if that matters to your family.
- Remember that gluten-free and non-GMO answer separate questions. A food can be both, either, or neither.
I came to the GMO question expecting a simple verdict. I found a thirty year old acronym, a specific safety consensus for the approved traits in stores today, and a label that does not answer the questions my family needs answered. So I read the ingredients. I ask about the sprays. I choose brands that share their sourcing honestly.
If a company can't tell you whether glyphosate touched their ingredients, keep asking. Come find me on Instagram at @cleanmondaymeals.