Better GMO labelling backed by a million Europeans

A Greenpeace petition has called for the EU to change its GMO-labelling rules to include milk, eggs, meat and other foods derived from animals fed with genetically modified products.

More than one million EU citizens have signed a petition, handed to Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou on 5 February 2007, calling for labelling on milk, eggs, meat and other food products derived from animals fed with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The EU is asked to guarantee consumers’ freedom of choice when purchasing food.

Under current EU legislation products consisting of or containing GMOs and food products obtained from GMOs are subject to traceability and labelling requirements. However, the regulation on GM food and feed does not require labelling of products which contain traces of GMOs below a 0.9% threshold level, provided the presence of GM material is unintended or technically unavoidable. Also products such as meat, milk or eggs obtained from animals fed with genetically modified feed or treated with genetically modified medicinal products are subject to this labelling and traceability exemption. 

According to Greenpeace, “the diet of farm animals in Europe is typically composed of up to 30% GMOs amounting to 20 million tonnes of GMOs entering the EU food chain each year without consumers being told”. 

A recent Eurobarometer survey on biotechnology and life sciences shows that EU citizens are becoming more optimistic about medical and industrial biotechnology but fiercly oppose agricultural biotechnologies, except in a few countries. According to the survey, Europeans see genetically modified (GM) food as “not being useful, as morally unacceptable and as a risk for society”.

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