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By Jane Bardon
Friday, 01/08/2008
Consumer groups are renewing calls for all genetically modified food to be labelled.It's been considered too hard and too expensive in the past.But that could be changing.The labels on our food are providing us with a plethora of new information.We've recently added Country of Origin, and soon we'll get unit pricing.But all of the food containing GM ingredients still doesn't have to be labelled.Claire Hughes from consumer group Choice says it's time for that to change:"Consumers might want to avoid GM foods, not just because of any potential health impacts, but also because of concerns about the impact of GM on the environment or because GM crops are controlled by a small number of powerful multinational organisations, who would then gain increasing control over the food supply."Lydia Buchtmann from Food Standards Australia New Zealand says we're now eating several genetically modified foods including corn, soy, potatoes, cottonseed, canola and sugar beet."But the federal and state governments decided eight years ago it would be too difficult and too expensive for all refined GM food to be labelled because there was no test to check for very processed GM material.Lydia Buchtmann from Food Standards says there was concern the high cost of checking instead by tracing GM through the food processing chain would be passed onto consumers.So because there's no cheap test to check for refined GM, we can see if there's GM cornflour in our bread, but not if our biscuits are baked with GM oil.But Lydia Buchtmann says that could change."One possibility is that slowly testing is becoming very accurate, that even low levels of GM could be found in highly refined oils and starches, and of course you set the standard, so that if they do turn up of course they would have to be labelled," she says."But apart from that, it's a political decision."Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke says he doesn't think the rules should be changed now.The federal Labor Party changed its policy on wanting clear labelling of all GM food before the election.But Tony Burke says he might change his view if the circumstances change."The prime concern is always to make sure you've got your food safety principals looked after, and I'm comfortable about how rigorous we are on that."The second issue is how you get the balance right on making sure consumers get information and knowing that everything you add to food labelling adds an extra layer of bureaucracy and cost. I'm comfortable with where the balance is at the moment, but you never stop reassessing that balance."
Friday, 01/08/2008
Consumer groups are renewing calls for all genetically modified food to be labelled.It's been considered too hard and too expensive in the past.But that could be changing.The labels on our food are providing us with a plethora of new information.We've recently added Country of Origin, and soon we'll get unit pricing.But all of the food containing GM ingredients still doesn't have to be labelled.Claire Hughes from consumer group Choice says it's time for that to change:"Consumers might want to avoid GM foods, not just because of any potential health impacts, but also because of concerns about the impact of GM on the environment or because GM crops are controlled by a small number of powerful multinational organisations, who would then gain increasing control over the food supply."Lydia Buchtmann from Food Standards Australia New Zealand says we're now eating several genetically modified foods including corn, soy, potatoes, cottonseed, canola and sugar beet."But the federal and state governments decided eight years ago it would be too difficult and too expensive for all refined GM food to be labelled because there was no test to check for very processed GM material.Lydia Buchtmann from Food Standards says there was concern the high cost of checking instead by tracing GM through the food processing chain would be passed onto consumers.So because there's no cheap test to check for refined GM, we can see if there's GM cornflour in our bread, but not if our biscuits are baked with GM oil.But Lydia Buchtmann says that could change."One possibility is that slowly testing is becoming very accurate, that even low levels of GM could be found in highly refined oils and starches, and of course you set the standard, so that if they do turn up of course they would have to be labelled," she says."But apart from that, it's a political decision."Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke says he doesn't think the rules should be changed now.The federal Labor Party changed its policy on wanting clear labelling of all GM food before the election.But Tony Burke says he might change his view if the circumstances change."The prime concern is always to make sure you've got your food safety principals looked after, and I'm comfortable about how rigorous we are on that."The second issue is how you get the balance right on making sure consumers get information and knowing that everything you add to food labelling adds an extra layer of bureaucracy and cost. I'm comfortable with where the balance is at the moment, but you never stop reassessing that balance."
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