Draft changes to GM label laws published

US farmers could eventually benefit from China finally opening the door to GMO corn imports.

US farmers could eventually benefit from China finally opening the door to GMO corn imports.

Published Oct 23, 2012

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Cape Town - New draft laws will compel industry to label food containing genetically modified (GM) ingredients.

This comes after a protracted row between big food producers and consumer organisations over the issue of labelling, with many companies refusing to label on the grounds that the labelling law was ambiguous.

Now the Department of Trade and Industry has published draft amendments to the regulations, which state that all local and imported food that contains five percent or more GM ingredients must be labelled: “contains genetically modified ingredients or components”.

Mariam Mayet, director of the African Centre for Biosafety, an anti-GM lobby group, said recently this was a “victory for consumers”.

“There were hundreds of letters from consumers. The minister of trade and industry [Rob Davies] did intervene and now the proposed amendments convey the clear intention of the government that the food industry must… label their products.

Consumers have a right to know what they are eating, and a right to chose what they eat,” Mayet said.

Mayet’s organisation and another anti-GM group, SAFeAGE, campaigned to have mandatory labelling of GM food included in the Consumer Protection Act.

However, months after the Consumer Act had come into force last year, there were almost no GM labels on food on supermarket shelves.

Some companies argued that the GM labelling laws in the Act applied to genetically modified crops, but not to food that contain components of GM crops.

Around 77 percent of maize and over 80 percent of soya in SA is genetically modified. Maize or soya products are found in a wide range of food, from breakfast cereals, margarine, sausages and hamburgers to chocolate bars, ice cream, bread and baby food.

Mayet said the labelling was particularly important in the light of a French study on laboratory rats, many of which developed tumours and kidney and liver problems after being fed a diet of GM maize for two years. The study, published in Food and Chemical Toxicology last month, has caused a storm of controversy overseas.

“Consumers are now even more concerned about knowing what they eat… at least now consumers can choose not to eat it if the food is labelled,” she said. - Cape Times

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