GM food labelling comes into force amid fears over 'lack of planning'

GM food labelling comes into force amid fears over 'lack of planning'

By
Dinesh C Sharma

PUBLISHED:

20:37, 1 January 2013 - UPDATED:23:56, 1 January 2013

On New Year's day, India joined a
select band of countries where food containing genetically modified (GM)
content must be labelled as such. But it has done so without any
preparation.

The
labelling of foods with GM ingredients has been a long-held demand of
consumer groups, but the way it has been done in India has left them
disappointed.

The
Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, which came into
effect on January 1, say "every package containing the genetically
modified food shall bear at the top of its principal display panel the
letters 'GM'."






People may mistake the 'GM' abbreviation for 'gram', activists fear

Consumer rights activist Bejon
Misra said of the move: "It is a good step, but it is being done without
any preparation at all. We don't know how this rule will be implemented
or how it will be applied to products with GM content that are being
imported or how the violators be prosecuted."

Moreover, merely printing the word GM on labels is not going to serve any purpose.

"People
may confuse it as an acronym for 'gram'. The label should explicitly
say 'this product contains genetically modified ingredients'," he said.

The
Noida-based Consumer Coordination Council has issued a memorandum to
the consumer affairs ministry stating that the one-line rule will not
serve any purpose until a statutory threshold of the presence of GM
ingredients is fixed and there is clarity about the roles and
responsibilities of implementation agencies.

"India
also does not have any labs to test GM ingredients in processed food,"
Shivani Shah of the charity Greenpeace pointed out.

Generally, the permissible threshold is based on what amounts can be scientifically traced.

"Given
that it is scientifically possible to ensure traceability up to 0.01
per cent, India should set traceability at this level for any
adventitious GMOs that may enter during field trials, transportation,
packaging or processing. Any amount of GMOs beyond this need to be
labelled as containing GMOs", the council suggested.







Source:-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2255769/GM-food-labelling-comes-force-activists-raise-fears-lack-planning.html