http://www.afr.com.au/content/981218/news/news4.html Australian Financial Review Dec 18, 1998 All transgenic food to be labelled By Cathy Bolt The food industry has suffered a defeat in its bid for a smooth introduction of transgenic foods in Australia after a ruling by health ministers yesterday that will require all food containing genetically modified material to be labelled. The 6:4 majority decision by the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Council was immediately branded a politically cheap option by the Australian Food Council, which claimed it would deliver the most restrictive labelling regime in the world for such products and could see Australia challenged under World Trade Organisation rules. "Even the Europeans haven't gone this far for the very reasons we implored the ministers to consider," said the council's executive director, Mr Mitch Hooke. "It will be meaningless to consumers, unenforceable, impractical -- and impose unnecessary costs." But the food policy officer at the Australian Consumers' Association, Mr Matt O'Neill, said the decision reflected consumers' basic right to know how the food they ate was produced. Surveys showed more than 80 per cent of consumers wanted full labelling. "It's a clear message for food producers that consumers won't be force-fed new food technology without being able to make a choice," he said. The Food Standards Council moved last August to fill a vacuum in Australian food laws governing transgenic products by requiring compulsory labelling where such foods were substantially different in taste, nutrition or use. The law is to take effect next year. But a decision has been deferred on the more controversial issue of labelling where they are substantially equivalent, for example, products which have ingredients derived from soy bean or cotton plants genetically engineered for pest or herbicide resistance but which are otherwise identical. Under the majority decision yesterday -- the opponents of which included the Federal Government, New Zealand and Victoria -- compulsory labelling will be required where the manufacturer knows the food contains genetically modified material. The Australia New Zealand Food Authority -- which also argued against labelling of substantially equivalent foods -- has been asked to draft an amendment to the Food Standards Code to put the decision into effect. But in another decision which continues to blur the issue, the ministers also asked ANZFA to develop a definition of genetically modified food. Controversy over the transgenic foods now starting to reach consumers after decades of development has been building in Australia since late 1996, when imported soy beans were the first food to arrive which might have contained transgenic material. Mr Hooke said there was little benefit to consumers in having the vast majority of products within the next few years on supermarket shelves labelled "may contain". c This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/ ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
