brussels, 10th december
environment ministers tighten rules for
traceability of gmo’s
European Environment Ministers have
yesterday evening decided that they want to
strengthen the rules for the traceability of
GMOs in food and animal feed. The decision
improves the possibilities to monitor
potential adverse effects of GMOs on health
and the environment and makes it easier to
recall products in case risks related to
particular GMOs were identified. The
Ministers also decided to extend the regime
of mandatory labelling of food and animal
feed products derived from genetically
modified organisms (GMOs). This decision will
make it easier for consumers to avoid food
containing GM ingredients.
Friends of the Earth Europe is broadly
supportive of the Ministers decision, but
regrets that the Ministers have allowed a 0.5
per cent threshold for the contamination of
food products by unauthorised GM ingredients
for a period of three years.
Friends of the Earth’s GMO Campaign
Coordinator, Geert Ritsema, said:
“Plans to allow unlicensed GM ingredients
into the European food chain are completely
outrageous. Consumers don’t even want
licensed GM ingredients in their food, which
is why the GM labelling rules are being
tightened. They will be understandably angry
if their politicians allow ingredients that
have not even been approved.”
Friends of the Earth will now call upon
the European Parliament –that will again vote
on GMO labelling in the beginning of next
year- to reject the plan to allow unlicensed
GMOs. In July 2002 -when the Parliament
discussed GM labelling for the first time- a
large majority of MEP’s has already voted for
zero-tolerance with regard to unauthorised
GMOs.
How did the Ministers vote ?
Yesterday evening the Environment
Ministers –with a great majority and only
opposed by the UK, The Netherlands, Luxemburg
and Finland- strengthened the traceability
rules for GMOs. Instead of a documentation
system that only says “may contain GMOs” (as
proposed by the European Commission), the
Ministers decided that operators in the food
and feed chain will have to provide other
operators a list of unique identifiers of all
GMOs that have been used. This would make it
much easier to recall products in case of a
risk related to a specific GMO and to monitor
potential adverse impacts of specific GMOs on
human health and the environment.
Also the Environment Ministers have backed
new labellingproposals, which were drafted by
the EU Commission and have already been
supported by EU Agriculture Ministers two
weeks ago. The new labelling rules will:
- extend labelling regulations to animal
feed. This will make it easier for food
manufacturers to obtain milk, eggs and meat
from animals fed GM-free diets.
- extend the labelling regulations to
include all ingredients derived from GM crops
for food. At present regulations do not cover
items such as sugar and vegetable oils, but
the new regulations will.
- tighten the GM threshold (the amount of
GM present in a food product before GM
labelling regulations apply) from 1 per cent
to 0.9 per cent.
Contact:
Geert Ritsema, GMO
Campaign Coordinator,
Phone: 00-32-(0)2- 542 0182. Mobile:
00-31-6-290 05 908
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