Under the new rules, all foods which contain or consist of GMOs or which are produced from GMOs will have to be labelled regardless of thepresence of GM material in the final product. A system that not only leans heavily on traceability, but leaves the door open to fraud.
"Third, fourth, fifth generation food ingredients derived from genetically modified foodstuffs will have to be labelled. A glucose syrup, for example, derived from starch, that in turn hails from a GM maize, will have to be labelled as such," a spokesperson for the European food manufacturers body the CIAA told FoodNavigator.com, adding that the industry had argued from the outset that the legislation had gone too far.
The new rules from Brussels - (EC) 1830/2003 on the Traceability and Labelling of GMOs and (EC) 1829/2003 on Genetically Modified (GM) Food and Feed - find their source in consumer suspicions of GM foods. The rules are set up to bring choice to the consumer - if they see 'GM ingredient' on the label they can decide to buy, or not. Today this option does not exist.
But not only this. The Commission has been under intense pressure from the biotech industry and the US to end the EU's de facto moratorium on GMs. The new rules on GM labelling open the way for an ultimate end to the ban and the introduction of new GM food crops into the European food chain.
Under the new rules, a threshold of 0.9 per cent will apply for the accidental presence of GM material, below which labelling of food or feed is not required. But for the CIAA, the threshold versus derivative slant of the law could leave the door open to confusion for the consumer reading the label.
"Two different products will appear on the supermarket shelves - a product derived from GMOs but with no GM material present will be labelled as such, whereas a food product that has GM material present but which is under the threshold will not require a label. This could be misleading," said the CIAA, the voice of the €600 billion European food and drink industry.
While the food industry prepares itself for an infernal paper chain, the start of the chain - the GM seed industry - must also be in line with the new rules.
"Seed companies are ready. This is an industry based on labelling," Simon Barber of biotech organisation Europabio told FoodNavigator.com.
While the food industry will have to extensively label GM food products in Europe, in fact food manufacturers have been reticient to use GM ingredients knowing that ultimately it did not make sound business sense in a climate where the European consumer remains extremely suspicious of genetically modified foodstuffs.
"There are not many GM seeds being sold, apart from Spain where there about 30,000-40,000 hectares of GM maize," added Barber.
But it is not just European food manufacturers who will be affected by the new rules. Companies from the US - where the use of GM ingredients is much more widespread - will also be subject to the regulations if they wish to do business in the European Union.
"These new requirements establish a serious trade barrier that will keep many US food products out of the European market," said John Cady, president and CEO of the National Food Processors Association (NFPA) in the US.
"European consumers will see such labels on food products as 'warning labels'. However, there is no safety or nutrition issue associated with the products of agricultural biotechnology on the market, and there is no scientific basis for requiring the labelling of biotech foods."Cady argued that mandatory labelling should be based on the composition, intended use, and health and safety characteristics of a food product, not on the 'genetic process' from which it was derived.
"The traceability requirements are a classic case of regulatory overkill, putting complex and detailed new requirements on food companies, with no benefit - but with added expense - for consumers."