By Matt Moore
The Associated Press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Spurned across the continent by food-fastidious Europeans, the biotechnology industry has turned in its quest for converts to the ultimate ice breaker: genetically modified beer.

A consortium of the world's largest biotech companies led by Monsanto Co. helped fund a Swedish brewer's new light lager that's produced with the usual hops and barley - and a touch of genetically engineered corn.

Brew master Kenth Persson hopes to profit from the buzz his biotech brew is generating, while biotech companies hope it can gently sway consumers as European regulators slowly reopen the continent to genetically altered foods.

But those are tall orders to fill.

A series of food-related health scares in recent years, from mad cow disease to poisoned poultry, has stoked fears among many Europeans about so-called GM foods.

Europeans insist that such food be clearly labeled, a vivid contrast with U.S. consumers, who don't appear bothered that so much of their processed food includes genetically engineered soy and corn and isn't labeled as such.

Indeed, most of the European Union's 457 million residents are adamant about their food being kept free from any sort of modifications, genetic or otherwise.

And that might help explain why Kenth beer is hardly a barroom hit.

The brewer won't say how many bottles have been sold since the beer was unveiled earlier this year in Denmark and Sweden. But he says 4,000 bottles are on their way to stores and pubs in Germany and he's in talks with stores in the United Kingdom.

Although research on GM foods hasn't yielded any nightmare scenarios about damage to life and limb, Nicholas Fjord of Malmoe in southern Sweden is not entirely convinced, either.

Despite reassurances that genetically modified products are safe, an image keeps popping up in Fjord's mind about a relative whose mother took Thalidomide in the 1960s because she was assured it was safe.

"So safe, indeed, that he has no elbow or knee joints and, despite living a good life, has been hindered since his birth," Fjord recalled. Granted, that's an extreme fear, he said, but one that seems to be strong in Europe.

A study conducted this year by Finland's National Consumer Research Center showed that of all the concerns about manufactured food that Finns have, genetically modified foods topped the list. Sixty percent of the population expressed "strong concern," according to the survey.

In April the EU lifted a six-year moratorium on new biotech food, but just barely. The previous month, it approved the sale of a modified strain of sweet corn, grown mainly in the United States. But any food containing that corn must be labeled as genetically modified.

U.S. farmers argue that the labeling amounts to a de facto ban.