News

3rd July 2002

GM labelling laws now made unworkable

The European Parliament today debated more stringent rules on the traceability and labelling of GM products. But European Commission plans to improve the regulatory framework for GM products were critically undermined by amendments adopted in the European Parliament today.

The Scheele Report on Genetically Modified Food and Feed was amended to extend labelling of products as "containing GM ingredients" even if they do not contain any detectable GM protein or DNA. The Parliament also voted to lower the threshold for the labelling of foods as containing GM material to those where GM matter makes up 0.5% of the final product.

Socialists also voted down Conservative amendments to make labelling water-tight by restricting GM labelling to products where GM presence was scientifically provable. John Bowis MEP, Environment Committee spokesman, said:

"We support GM labelling. But it must be true, verifiable and enable consumers to make an informed choice. As amended today, the Commission's rules will mislead consumers and could lead to large scale fraud. A coalition of the left, the Greens and the Liberals, with the British Labour MEPs too cowardly to vote at all, hijacked today's vote and have made the legislation unworkable.

"We believe that consumers should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to buy food containing GM material. These proposals remove that choice and will confuse consumers, rather than allow them to decide between GM and non-GM food products."