SALES of milk from cattle reared on non-GM feed have gone so well that Sainsbury’s is to extend its trial of the product.

The new line was launched in July at 105 stores, but demand has been so great that the milk cartons, labelled with a “non-GM feed” slogan, will be in 190 stores nationwide by Christmas. A spokeswoman at Sainsbury’s said that sales were “very encouraging”.

The semi-skimmed milk is supplied from a few farms in the South West and South East, which have procedures in place to guarantee that there is no genetically modified material in their feed. If the company decides to sell the new milk in each of its 500 stores, it will first have to sign up more farms to the venture.

Sainsbury’s move into “non-GM feed” milk was announced after calls by Greenpeace for shoppers to boycott the chain for selling milk from cattle reared on GM fodder. The company denied that it had caved in to the environmental group, but City experts believe the company was under pressure from shareholders concerned about a possible impact on profits.

The “non-GM feed” milk costs 63p for two pints, compared with 58p for conventional milk and 66p for organic.

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