Companies push voluntary labels on modified foods

WASHINGTON (AP):

Large food companies are trying to head off state efforts to enact mandatory labelling of genetically modified ingredients by proposing new voluntary labels nationwide.

The food industry and farm groups are pushing Congress to pass legislation that would require the Food and Drug Administration to create guidelines for the new labels, which food manufacturers could use.

A federal standard for voluntary labels would get food manufacturers off the hook if any states pass laws requiring mandatory labelling. Recent ballot initiatives in California and Washington failed, but several state legislatures are considering labelling requirements and opponents of engineered ingredients are aggressively pushing new laws in several states.

questions remain

There is very little science that says genetically engineered foods are unsafe, but opponents say that there is too much unknown about the seeds that are altered in labs to have certain traits, and that consumers have a right to know if they are eating them. The seeds are engineered for a variety of reasons, many of them to resist herbicides or insects.

Pamela Bailey, president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the food industry's main trade group, said the decision on labels should rest with the Food and Drug Administration, which is set up to assess the safety of foods.

"It does not serve national food safety policy to leave these issues to political campaigns," she said.