So, what about GMO sugar?
Ask Michael Ann Relka, agronomist with Western Sugar Cooperative in Scottsbluff, and Rebecca Larson, agronomist in plant pathology at Western's Denver, Colo., office, and you will get an earful.
Keep in mind that Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) include plants that have been created through gene splicing—the introduction of DNA from a different species to make a new one. Roundup Ready (glyphosate tolerant) beets have been modified to survive chemical applications that kill weeds.
According to Relka, there really is no such thing as genetically modified organism (GMO) sugar. (This is due to chemical action when sugarbeets are processed in the factory.)
When a sugar beet is delivered to the sugar factory only about 15-20% of the beet is actual sugar. Therefore, the factory has to process the beets and extract the sugar from the rest of the beet. In the process, the sugar goes through many purification processes that extract out only 100% pure sugar.
"Sugar is a carbohydrate, and all DNA and protein associated with the GM trait is removed during extraction," Relka explained. "So by extracting only a carbohydrate you are left with a product that contains no protein, no DNA, and therefore no GMO. No lab is able to determine the difference between sugar that came from a GMO plant and sugar that came from a non-GMO plant.
"So our sugar is the same today as it was before we started using biotech sugarbeets."