Reuters | October 12, 1999
BRUSSELS - Under plans drawn up by the European Commission, food products sold in the European Union may, according to this story, be labeled as free of genetically modified ingredients if they contain no more than one percent GM material.
If accepted by EU governments, the proposal would, the story adds, end months of legal uncertainty and finally allow the EU to put into practice a consistent labeling policy to distinguish foods containing GM ingredients from conventional products.
An EU source was cited as telling Reuters Monday that the plan will be discussed and possibly voted on by food experts from the 15 EU states at a meeting in Brussels on October 21.
The plan would also help shippers of bulk commodities, who have faced difficulties delivering to the EU because they have been unable to prove that shipments are free of traces of corn and soybean varieties which are yet to be approved by the EU.
The story notes that efforts to reassure European consumers have not been helped by the lack of clarity about how to label such foods.
While the EU is committed to a system which would distinguish clearly between foods containing GM ingredients and "GM-free" products, it has been unable so far to decide what constitutes "GM-free."
The official was further cited as saying that the Commission's proposal to set the GM-free threshold at one percent is an attempt to take account of the fact that small traces of GM material may enter the food chain during processing and manufacturing, and that EU states must decide whether to approve the plan by a "qualified majority," with votes weighted according to country size, adding, "The plan is up for a vote, but it won't necessarily get that far. There's likely to be a lot of outstanding questions about how to test for GM content."
