INTERNATIONAL SCIENTISTS PROTEST OVER AUSTRALIA’S LAX LABELLING LAWS FOR GM FOOD
State and Federal Governments have promised there will be an independent review of food labelling laws, which will revisit the traffic light system of labelling for salt, sugar and fat content. In principle the review was agreed to at the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council in Adelaide on Friday, October 24 and also stated they would examine the issue of labelling all food generated from genetically engineered crops.
A letter signed by 15 international scientists protesting over Australia’s extremely lax labelling laws for GM food, was sent to the Federal Health Minister, Nicola Rixon prior to last week’s meeting.
The Letter appealed for an urgent independent review of Food Standards Australia New Zealand, noting that the authority is one of only a few regulators in the world to have approved every single application it has received for GM products.
The majority of other countries are passing more stringent food labelling laws controlling GM foods, but products such as oils, starches and sugars still require no labelling in Australia.
Dr. Judy Carman, one of the letter’s signatories, a director of the Institute of Health and Environmental Research, said the decision not to mandate the labelling of GM oils was based on FSANZ’s flawed belief the oils do not contain DNA or protein. Meat, milk, cheese and eggs produced by animals that have been fed genetically engineered crops are also exempt form labelling.
“There is strong scientific evidence that FSANZ (Food Standards Australia New Zealand) is wrong and that these animal products should be labelled,” she said.
The separate issue of front-of-pack- traffic-light labelling will be examined in the proposed review. The labelling system is despised by many food makers because it identifies products high in salt, sugar, saturated fats and total fat through a simple code using red, amber and green spots.
The issue is complicated by the absence of and regulation mandating the labelling of trans fatty acids. These are more dangerous than saturated fats, yet under the proposed traffic lights system these would still be classified under total fats.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) added its weight to the trans fat debate, supporting legislation introduced by the Greens in the NSW Parliament to move towards a total ban, as Denmark has done.
Link – Update March 2008, Interview with Jeffrey Smith on GM Food Safety.
GM Foods – Continued Facts
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