EU: MEPs Seek GMO Clarity

On 6 January the EP Environment Committee called for what it described as the current “profoundly muddled” state of EU food law to be made more transparent and user-friendly. In condemning the general confusion that exists in EU rules governing the use, labelling and advertising of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), MEPs want clear and new sources of consumer information to be developed including a sensible approach to labelling. It appears that those Member States leading the campaign for far-reaching labelling regulations – Austria, Denmark, Germany and Sweden – may now face a position in which ministers fail to reach agreement on new labelling rules, and so the EC could impose its own plans. Under existing rules, in force since November 1997, foodstuff manufacturers are obliged to label products as containing GMOs if these can be detected using a “scientific method”; this has left considerable scope for ambiguity as to the definition of a “scientific method”.