• 10:00 16 December 2006
• From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.

Despite having consumed genetically modified food in their cookies and apple pies for the best part of a decade, most Americans still don't know they're routinely eating the stuff.

A poll of 1000 US citizens published on 6 December reveals that only a quarter realise they're eating GM food, and 60 per cent have no idea it's in their diet.

"It's not completely off the radar, but it's not at the top of the mind for US consumers, and never has been," says Michael Fernandez of the Washington DC-based Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, which commissioned the survey. Public ignorance might be down to the fact that most GM material is effectively hidden, he says. It may be present, for example, as soybean lecithin or maize syrup in cookies, without labelling.

So what would it take to increase awareness? As always, a good food scare. The unexplained presence of GM material in imported food, for example, would play on people's prejudices, says Fernandez.