GMO Labeling in Packages

Hi Guys,

In your opinion, should GMO labeling be mandatory?

I believe everyone has the right to know what ingredients are in a finished product - any company that has "nothing to hide" should have no issues with labeling completely and correctly its product(s).

The real difficulty is what constitutes GMO and especially GMO in final product.

Some ingredients are made using GMO organisms - vitamins/enzyme production for example. After the refining and purification process all traces of GMO DNA is removed and as such it's 'GMO' free. This situation is not acceptable to organic certifying organisations - well the one I know of. No ingredients produced using GMO organisms are permitted even though all traces are removed. The by product (enzyme/vitamin) is technically not GMO, just how its produced uses GMO process.

But is the end product  GMO product or not? A cow is feed GMO grain - is the meat and milk now GMO? How are products produced using GMO technology or meat/milk from animals fed GMO feed to be labelled for the consumer to make an informed choice.

Some very grey areas....

I believe everyone has the right to know what ingredients are in a finished product - any company that has "nothing to hide" should have no issues with labeling completely and correctly its product(s).

The real difficulty is what constitutes GMO and especially GMO in final product.

 

Some ingredients are made using GMO organisms - vitamins/enzyme production for example. After the refining and purification process all traces of GMO DNA is removed and as such it's 'GMO' free. This situation is not acceptable to organic certifying organisations - well the one I know of. No ingredients produced using GMO organisms are permitted even though all traces are removed. The by product (enzyme/vitamin) is technically not GMO, just how its produced uses GMO process.

 

But is the end product  GMO product or not? A cow is feed GMO grain - is the meat and milk now GMO? How are products produced using GMO technology or meat/milk from animals fed GMO feed to be labelled for the consumer to make an informed choice.

 

Some very grey areas....

I agree with both of you --Loredana & Liberator. We already offer GMO statements to our customers, and we get numerous questions about GMO vs. non-GMO all the time. Since the state of Vermont (US) has made their ruling and we sell there (although we are in a different state which has not made the ruling yet), we'll end up changing our labels anyway.

We have a number of items that test negative for GMOs using PCR testing in finished product, but contain GMO enzymes to catalyze reactions at the beginning of the process. We also have products where suppliers have stated "may or may not contain GMO". How do you address that on a label? It may mean suppliers need to tighten up on their wording, and those of us downstream just state "contains GMO".

There's also different interpretations of non-GMO and GMO-Free; in which some people use those terms interchangeably and some don't. It's my understanding that non-GMO products are made without any GMO ingredients or additives or being altered by biotechnology. With GMO-Free products, you have to show that they are absolutely 100% GMO-Free and no possibility of trace GMOs have gotten into the mix. That's another story.... I think we all need a better understanding of GMO/non-GMO/GMO-Free to serve our customers  and label products more accurately.

QAGB

Information to consumers without misleading is an important part of consumers confidence in our products. GMO is in the world. GMO are safety checked and released by FDA or EFSA. GMO is not a question of food safety. But GMO is part of a technology driven world like nuclear power.

Consumers want to make their choice themselves in the shelf for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, natural or not, halal, kosher and ........nonGM.

In Europe they don't have the choice to select for GM - because there is nearly no food available with GM (based on the existing definitions). In the US they have to search for nonGM because most of the food contains GM. This is a different approach, a decision the politicans have decided decades ago.

But there is a worldwide growing interest in nutrition. The people want to know more and more what they eat. Vegan, vegetarian, free from products have a strongly growing market share.

But clear rules and legal definitions of terms (genetic engineering, bioengineering, synthetc biology, contamination and limits....etc.) are needed and a common understanding. Even in Europe all information is based on the legal definitions - and some people disagree still and want to set more strict rules.

Rgds

moskito

Information to consumers without misleading is an important part of consumers confidence in our products. GMO is in the world. GMO are safety checked and released by FDA or EFSA. GMO is not a question of food safety. But GMO is part of a technology driven world like nuclear power.

Consumers want to make their choice themselves in the shelf for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, natural or not, halal, kosher and ........nonGM.

In Europe they don't have the choice to select for GM - because there is nearly no food available with GM (based on the existing definitions). In the US they have to search for nonGM because most of the food contains GM. This is a different approach, a decision the politicans have decided decades ago.

But there is a worldwide growing interest in nutrition. The people want to know more and more what they eat. Vegan, vegetarian, free from products have a strongly growing market share.

But clear rules and legal definitions of terms (genetic engineering, bioengineering, synthetc biology, contamination and limits....etc.) are needed and a common understanding. Even in Europe all information is based on the legal definitions - and some people disagree still and want to set more strict rules.

 

Rgds

moskito

Hi Moskito,

I'd say that was extremely well said. Right now, my company is in the midst of trying to jump on to the "non-GMO train", and it's hard to get everyone to understand exactly what it means. It just doesn't seem like the non-GM understanding has been well developed. Here in the US, we just don't have proper legislation yet, and it doesn't seem like the industry has prepared itself for all of the interest.

In regard to your discussion about GM in the US as opposed to Europe, you are absolutely correct. In the US, for certain products, there really aren't any non-GMO alternatives that exist other than buying imported product. Even then, you may be able to get product from a couple of suppliers with an extremely lengthy lead time. What happens to supply chain when the demand exceeds the supply? What happens if the overseas companies cannot produce due to unforeseen issues (natural disasters, bad crops, etc.)? It would be nice to see more non-GMO options here for some of the ingredients we have in our facility, but I'm not sure how possible that would be for some of the starting crops.

I get customer questions all the time about whether our products are considered vegan, non-GMO, enzyme free, don't contain heavy metals, melamine free; you name it. It's exactly as you said; customers want to know what they are eating. Rightfully so; we all should have the ability to choose what we will and will not eat. It's just unfortunate that everyone is trying to jump into non-GMO without clear cut definitions by the FDA.

QAGB