Additional options such as a phone number or web address are available to small food manufacturers or for small and very small packages. The labeling standard does not cover ingredients or products in which the modified genetic material is not detectable.
All GM foods have had to be labelled in countries of the European Union. Moreover, conventional foods with adventitious presence of GM materials of higher than 0. Additional labelling was also required for GM food ingredients with significantly altered characteristics. The Japanese authorities have required designated agricultural products and processed food items containing GM materials to be labelled.
For the processed food items, those ingredients containing GM materials that are ranked within the top three constituents in terms of weight and the weight ratio of which account for five percent or more of the total weight have to be labelled. Labelling is not required for oil and sauce, where the original GM materials can no longer be detected.
Some other Asian countries such as Thailand and Vietnam have also set up regulations on GM food labelling. Might not address the need of consumers who would like to know whether food contains any GM materials at all, so as to make informed choice. Might not address the need of consumers who would like to know whether the non-designated food items contain any GM materials or not.
Different labelling approaches have their merits and shortcomings. Issues to be considered in setting up a practical and balanced labelling system include:. Detection methods for highly processed foods e. Today, the most common GM crops on the market are soybean, corn, cotton, canola, and sugar beet.
Because many processed food products contain ingredients from one of these crops e. Since , the U. Food and Drug Administration FDA has required labeling of GM foods only if the food has a nutritional or food safety property that is significantly different from what consumers would expect of that food.
For example, if a new GM food includes a protein that may be an allergen not expected to be present such as a peanut protein expressed in a soybean , then it would have to be labeled. Otherwise, the FDA has not considered the methods used to produce new plant varieties such as hybridization or genetic engineering to present systematic differences in nutritional properties or safety concerns compared to standard methods of traditional plant breeding.
Therefore, the method of development is not considered material information required to be disclosed in the labeling of foods under U. Early in , the FDA proposed voluntary guidelines for companies that choose to label foods as to whether they do or do not contain GM ingredients if they see sufficient market opportunities for doing so See FDA, A number of companies and initiatives already voluntarily provide labeling of food products regarding their avoidance of GM ingredients.
Voluntary labeling does not require further regulatory measures. The costs associated with verification that the food product does or does not use GM ingredients are only incurred by those consumers who choose to purchase the labeled product. Mandatory labeling would extend much further and would require, at a minimum, that all food products containing any GM ingredient above a certain threshold for trace amounts to indicate that fact.
Stronger mandatory labeling requirements could include identification of each specific GM ingredient and its level of content in the product. Mandatory labeling requires further regulatory interventions including monitoring and enforcement. Under a mandatory labeling system, all consumers—both those that are concerned about the GM ingredients and those that are not—help bear the costs associated with being able to verify that foods do or do not use GM ingredients.
USDA organic standards exclude the use of genetic engineering, but do not rule out the use of more conventional breeding methods, such as hybridization or tissue culture.
Organic certification depends upon reasonable precautions being undertaken to prevent commingling and contact with GM products. There are many arguments both for and against the mandatory labeling of GM foods.
These arguments are summarized below. Although mandatory labeling of GM ingredients may appear to be a straightforward measure, there are several complex issues that need resolving prior to implementation. For practical reasons, it is necessary to specify the threshold level of GM content allowed before the product must be labeled as GM. A commonly proposed threshold level is one percent.
This is the labeling threshold decided upon by Australia and New Zealand. The European Union has decided on a level of 0. The lower the threshold, generally, the higher the cost of compliance and the broader the impact on the current food system. Some labeling proposals include these products among those that would require labels. However, the biological rationale for doing so has not been demonstrated, that is, DNA or protein from inserted genes have not been found in livestock products.
These foods are typically highly refined foods, such as sugars and oils, where processing has removed the DNA and protein from the food, including novel DNA and novel protein. GM flavourings that are present in food in a concentration of no more than 0. Food intended for immediate consumption that is prepared and sold from food premises and vending vehicles e.
In these cases the consumer can seek information about the food from the food business. Information supplied by the food business must not be misleading or untruthful. FSANZ also considers if additional labelling about the nature of any altered characteristic is required. For example, additional labelling is required for high lysine corn which indicates that it has been genetically modified to contain increased levels of lysine.
See Current GM applications and approvals for links to our assessment reports. Food from animals that have eaten GM feed Animals that are fed with feed that has been produced using gene technology are not themselves genetically modified.
The food products, for example meat, milk, eggs derived from an animal which has been fed GM feed are not regarded as GM foods and are not required to be labelled. More information on fair trade legislation is available from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and New Zealand Commerce Commission websites. These permissions can be found in Schedule 26 of the Food Standards Code. We do not maintain a list of food products in the marketplace which contain GM foods or ingredients.
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