Germany’s biggest beer company – Bavarian brewery Oettinger – has begun producing beer free from genetically modified ingredients, it was reported on Monday.
Soon Oettinger bottles will bear the “GM free” symbol, as production using the new ingredients begins straight away, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Monday.
The move was in response to requests made by consumers for more transparency from the brewery, owner and CEO Dirk Kollmar said.
He added that the brewery considered it an extension of Germany’s 1516 Rheinheitsgebot or beer purity law, which denotes beer can only be made from water, hops, malt and yeast.
Oettinger is an unusual brewery in that it does not belong to the beer industry’s umbrella organisation. This means that it can bypass intermediary traders and sell beer very cheaply. But this also means often forgoing expensive marketing and PR.
Industry experts said on Monday that Oettinger’s switch to non-GM could well prove to higher-end brewers that cheaper brands could brew under a seemingly more upmarket “purity law plus”.
