Reuters | November 18, 1999 | By Christopher Lyddon
LONDON - Genetically modified foods have highlighted differing official attitudes to labelling around the world, while consumers push for more information.
Europe has been fast to insist on warning labels, with much of Asia and Australia following at a slower pace, while U.S. officialdom has tended to question the value of ever more writing on food packages.
But U.S. consumer lobbyists want labels just as much as their European fellows. "We are absolutely in favour of labelling GMOs," Mark Silbergeld of the Consumers Union in Washington DC told Reuters. There was no evidence that current products were unsafe, he said, but not labelling prevented consumers from making an informed decision.
There were more reasons than for just safety for wanting to avoid a product. There were those with personal ethical objections to biotechnology. "People who wish to avoid the unknown should be able to do so," he said.
The U.S. food industry has insisted it can provide enough information to consumers with toll-free telephone numbers, websites and store brochures. But support among the U.S. public for mandatory labelling has grown to 45 percent, from 40 percent a year ago, according to a poll released last week by the food industry-funded International Food Information Council.
"The labelling really needs to be reserved for things that are critical," said David Schmidt, IFIC senior vice president for food safety. Most consumers would say they wanted labelling if asked the straight question, but once issues of how much information could be included on the label had been discussed, a majority were happy with current policy.
Schmidt backed a U.S. emphasis on nutrition labelling. "Nutrition has an impact on health," he said. There was no evidence that biotechnology did.
The Food and Drug Administration currently does not require labels. Faced with growing consumer unease, it will hold a series of meetings later this month to take a fresh look at the policy.
EUROPEAN LABELLING RULES IN PLACE
In May 1998 the Novel Foods Regulation established a requirement to label foods containing GMOs (any modified protein or DNA not "substantially equivalent" to conventional foods). But it left open how this was going to be done.
However, two GMOs, a Monsanto soya and a Novartis maize, were already on the market before the Novel Foods regulation. These are now covered by stand-alone legislation.
European consumers have called loudly for labelling all along. "Our biggest complaint on the introduction of GMOs was not on health and safety as far as human beings are concerned, but that consumers weren't being given any choice," said Jim Murray, head of the European Union consumers organisation BEUC.
"These products were being forced upon them. Having labelling will allow them to make an informed choice. I suspect a lot of consumers won't care. Not everyone's worried about GMOs by any means.
"Labelling now is about right; not a million miles away from what we want. I don't believe GMOs are a reason for big problems, but we do need more reassurance, more studies to keep a weather eye on developments."
The British food industry has no problem with the idea of labelling. "Labelling is vitally important to let consumers make the choice," said a spokesman for the biggest supermarket, Tesco Plc.
"Consumers have an insatiable appetite for information so they can make informed choices," he said. "We are particularly good in Europe at labelling compared with other parts of the world. There's an awful lot of information there."
AUSTRALIAN CONSUMERS FOR LABELLING
"We support consumers' ability to make informed choices. Without the (labelled) information the choice is simply not rational," said Mara Bun, manager for policy and public affairs at the Australian Consumer Association.
The Australian Food and Grocery Council is more circumspect.
"We're not contesting thresholds (in labelling information) but we are contesting how meaningful (they are) to consumers' concepts of what it may contain. The standard is in limbo," a spokesman said.
Asia is split between widespread apathy, Japan's attempts to reconcile a pro-labelling consumer movement with practical market needs, and pragmatism in Thailand on retaining access to the European market for food products.
In Japan, the No GMO campaign, which includes 100 organisations ranging from consumers to farmers and religious bodies, demanded the government implement comprehensive labelling, secretary general Setsuko Yasuda said.
Australian and New Zealand health ministers on October 22 reaffirmed a commitment to mandatory labelling but deferred a final decision after inconclusive deliberations covering testing practicalities, labelling cost, consumer desires and ethics in the genetic foods issue.
The Japanese government in August decided to mandate labelling of GM foods from April 2001 but has made many exemptions on the grounds that existing test technology cannot detect all cases of genetic modification.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.
