Europe is set to introduce the world鈥檚 strictest laws for labelling genetically modified food. However, controversially, the draft law agreed by agriculture ministers would force the labelling of foods that are derived from GM crops but do not contain any measurable GM protein or DNA.
This would include glucose syrup produced from GM maize or soybean and rape oil from GM plants. The draft, agreed on Wednesday night, was described by a source at the European Commission as 鈥渁 milestone, a real breakthrough,鈥� and is almost certain to be given final approval by the European Parliament in four months time.
The draft was welcomed by David Byrne, EU commissioner for consumer protection: 鈥淚 feel strongly that our citizens need to be able to make this choice. But I would also like to say that I deplore scaremongering about GMOs.鈥�
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Greenpeace and other groups campaigning against GM technology also welcomed the draft. But the UK鈥檚 Food Standards Agency (FSA) has described the proposed rules as a 鈥渃heat鈥檚 charter鈥�, as food inspectors have no way of detecting whether the derived products come from GM or non-GM crops.
鈥淲e think the proposals will be unenforceable and impractical, and don鈥檛 represent a positive move in terms of consumer choice,鈥� says an FSA spokeswoman. Inspectors will have to rely on a 鈥減aper trail鈥� documenting the source of the food back to its origins and 鈥渨e think that鈥檚 absolutely open to fraud鈥�, she says. The FSA favoured retention of existing laws, plus a 鈥淕M-free鈥� label for foods specially produced to contain no GM or GM-derived material.
Accidental contamination
While the proposed law demands labelling of food that many would consider not to contain GM material, it also paradoxically allows some food that contains detectable GM ingredients to go unlabelled. Any food with less than 0.9 per cent of detectable GM ingredients would not require a GM label.
Furthermore, even if the GM ingredient has not been approved in the European Union, accidental contamination up to 0.5 per cent is permitted without labelling.
Another new feature of the proposed law is that animal feed produced from GM crops will have to be labelled. So too will animal feed containing GM-derived ingredients such as flavourings or vitamin additives. But meat and dairy produce from animals raised on GM feed will not have to be labelled.
鈥淣o sneaking鈥�
Greenpeace was delighted with most of the new draft. 鈥淭he most important practical effect of this new regulation will be that no GMOs can enter the European market unlabelled,鈥� says Lorenzo Consoli.
鈥淭his will send a strong message to commodity exporting nations such as the USA, Canada, Argentina and Brazil,鈥� says Consoli. 鈥淭he times when you could sneak millions of tonnes of GM soybeans and maize unlabelled into the food chain are definitely over.鈥�
EuropaBio, representing biotechnology companies, criticised the draft, claiming it would be difficult for countries growing GM crops to keep accidental contamination below 0.5 per cent, 鈥渆specially developing countries exporting traditional food and feed products to Europe鈥�.
