London - Britain's Prince Charles has warned against the industrial-scale development of genetically modified (GM) food in an unusually outspoken interview published on Wednesday.

Multinational companies developing GM crops were conducting a "gigantic experiment I think with nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong," he told the Daily Telegraph.

He especially warned against relying on "gigantic corporations" for food: "That would be the absolute destruction of everything ... and the classic way of ensuring there is no food in the future."

"I think it's heading for real disaster," he said.

"What we should be talking about is food security not food production."

Especially small farmers would suffer from the overreliance on large-scale industrial producers.

British media were surprised about the unusually vehement comments from the heir to the throne.

BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell said the prince's statements were "likely to rankle with the government."

"Even for a prince who's a long-established champion of organic farming and critic of GM crops, these are comments which verge on the extreme," he said.

Britain has okayed a series of trials with genetically modified crops over the past eight years.

Commenting on the prince's rebuke, a spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said, "As we have said many times, there is an important debate to be had on the potential role of GM crops in the future, and we welcome all voices in that debate."

"Safety will always be our top priority on this issue," she said. (dpa)