EUROPE SETS GLOBAL STANDARD TO PROTECT CONSUMERS

New GMO food labelling laws come into force

Brussels, 15 April. New food labelling laws giving consumers better
information about ingredients originating from genetically modified (GM)
crops come into force on the 18th April 2004 in Europe. The legislation
has been welcomed by Friends of the Earth Europe, who have called on
countries throughout the world to implement similar labelling laws to
give consumers the right to decide whether to eat GM foods.

The new European laws were agreed in July 2003 and include:

– Full traceability of GM products from farm to consumer so that
ingredients from GM crops that no longer contain modified DNA will also
be labelled. In practice this means that on top of the products for
which there already existed a labelling requirement (such as sweet corn)
– important new food products (such as vegetable oil and sugars) will
have to be labelled.
– For the first time, labelling and traceability of animal feeds.
– Ingredients with a GM content over 0.9% need to be labelled with,
"This product contains genetically modified organisms." However this
threshold is only allowed if the contamination is "adventitious or
technically unavoidable", which has to be proven by operators.

Friends of the Earth are however critical that the legislation:

– Allows for unapproved GMOs to be present up to 0.5% for the next 3 years
– Does not include animal products such as milk and eggs from animals
fed GMOs.

Geert Ritsema, GMO Coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe said:

" Genetically modifying foods is one of the biggest experiments of our
time. For too long these unproven and unwanted ingredients have been on
supermarket shelves without adequate public information. Although not
perfect, these laws will now allow people to reject this experiment once
and for all."

"This new European legislation will also set a new global benchmark for
GMO labelling. Every consumer in the world should have the same rights
as European citizens now have to decide whether they eat genetically
modified foods or not. Today should be a wake-up call to countries
worldwide to give consumers the right to know."

CONTACT: Geert Ritsema mobile +31 6 290 05 908, office: +32-2-542 0182