AFTER years of wrangling, the European Parliament has passed strict regulations on the labelling of genetically modified food. They are due to come into force six months from now, pending the final nod from the European Union鈥檚 Council of Ministers.
What difference the regulations will make remains to be seen. Advocates of biotechnology hope that six European member states will now honour an earlier commitment to lift their unofficial moratorium on approvals of new varieties of GM crops, which has helped keep GM technology in limbo since 1998. The US has asked the World Trade Organization to rule on whether this moratorium breaches free trade rules.
But even if the moratorium ends, the US will struggle to sell its food to Europe. Since it does not segregate GM and non-GM crops, most of its exports would have to be labelled as GM.
Advertisement
Opponents of GM foods are delighted by the strictness of the new rules, which will force producers to label oils and syrups derived from GM plants even if they are indistinguishable from their conventional counterparts. Existing EU regulations require labelling only of food containing detectable amounts of GM material.
The new rules will force manufacturers to label any product that contain more than 0.9 per cent of approved GM materials, and will ban products that contain more than 0.5 per cent of non-approved GM material. Even that amount of non-approved material will be allowed only if co-mixing of the material is 鈥渢echnically unavoidable鈥�. And for the first time, animal feed sold to farmers will have to be labelled if it contains GM material, although meat and milk from the animals will not have to be labelled.
The rules are due to be reviewed in two years. But the US administration already believes that they are unduly restrictive. One suspicion is that the US will try to challenge their validity through the WTO.
EU officials claim the regulations will help build public confidence in food standards. But the UK鈥檚 Food Standards Agency says the rules will be a 鈥渃heat鈥檚 charter鈥�. Where tests cannot distinguish GM-derived food from its conventional counterpart, officials will have to rely on a 鈥渇arm to fork鈥� paper trail, providing ample opportunity for dodgy dealing.
And enquiries by New 杏吧原创 suggest that few consumers will even encounter food bearing the new labels. All of the retailers or food manufacturers we contacted said they would not offer GM food until they are convinced that consumers will buy, although none were opposed to GM technology in principle.
鈥淥ur own-label ranges of products will remain GM-free until we know consumers are happy to accept these products,鈥� says a spokeswoman for the British supermarket chain Safeway. Her comments were echoed by other major supermarkets, including Sainsbury and Tesco. And major food manufacturer Unilever says it would resist using GM ingredients in Europe.