International outlook: labelling of foods derived from GMOs Masami Takeuchi, Ph.D. Food Safety Officer

Why label food? Nutrition facts Health claims Added value (marketing, religion, policy, preference): organic, halal, fair trade, eco-friendly, etc Potential allergen information Information on additives Right-to-know - GMOs

Possible issues of labelling Information overload Possible confusions (mis-lead consumers) Language issue Synonyms? Right-to-know (at what level?) Accuracy?

Food Labelling Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL) More than 40 years Meets every year Next session: Oct 2014 (Canada?) ees-and-task- forces/en/?provide=committeeDetail&idList =7http:// ees-and-task- forces/en/?provide=committeeDetail&idList =7

CCFL documents General guidelines on claims (1991) Guidelines on nutrition labelling (2013) Guidelines for use of nutrition and health claims (2013) General guidelines for use of the term Halal (1997) Guidelines for the production, processing, labelling and marketing of organicaly produced foods (2013) Compilation of Codex exts relevant to the labelling of foods derived from modern biotechnology (2011) – see CXG_07s.pdf General standard for the labelling of prepackaged foods (2010) General standard for the labelling of food additives when sold as such (1981) General standard for the labelling of and claims for prepackaged foods for special dietary uses (1985)

One line about GMO labelling Risk management measures may include, as appropriate, food labelling conditions for marketing approvals and post-market monitoring. [Paragraph 19 of the Principles for the Risk Analysis of Foods Derived from Modern Biotechnology (CAC/GL )]

International perspective At the moment, there are no internationally-agreed recommendations on the food labelling of GM foods. Governments are therefore applying their own regulations. [see Questions about specific Codex work at cific-codex-work/] cific-codex-work/

2013 FAO Technical survey Question: If your country has a specific labelling requirement for GM crops, please briefly describe key features of the requirement. Please select all that apply. Answers: 75 countries – see Labelling.pdf

Positive/Negative and Mandatory/voluntary This product contains GMOs (positive) This product does not contain GMOs (negative) Retailer MUST label the product (mandatory) –Positive, negative or both Retailer MAY label the product (voluntary) –Positive, negative or both

Issue of thresholds For both mandatory and voluntary labelling, there is a need to establish a threshold –Zero? –0.9%? –1%? –5%? Science-based? Issue of LLP?

Possible forward-looking prelim activities Understand consumers –Demands and needs –Level of knowledge/understanding Involve stakeholders –Industry associations –Academia –NGOs Consider the government’s priorities and the feasible options

Questions?