Governments push for GM animal feed to be labelled

Date: 23/09/1999

By Simon Taylor

EU FARM ministers are stepping up the pressure for Union-wide rules which would make it compulsory to label animal feed made from genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Austrian Agriculture Minister Wilhelm Molterer will table proposals at a meeting with his EU counterparts next Monday (27 September) which would require animal feed to be labelled to indicate that it had been produced from genetically modified crops, such as Monsanto's RoundUp Ready soybean and Novartis' Bt maize.

The move, which is supported by the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands, comes amid increasing public concern in the wake of the Belgian dioxin crisis that lax controls mean it is impossible to tell what is in feed.

But Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne is expected to tell ministers that proposals for feed rules cannot be drawn up until changes to the approvals procedure for new GM products have been agreed, to ensure coherence between the different types of legislation on GMOs - and that could take until the middle of next year. He will also reject calls for interim labelling, arguing that they would take as long to agree.

Vienna wants to extend the existing strict EU rules on GMOs in human food to the feed sector and says any claim by feed makers that their product was GMO-free should have to be tested.

European consumer group BEUC has welcomed the Austrian initiative. "The main thing is to give consumers' choice. That has to be based on full traceability along the food chain, so we would support any measures which would enable that choice to be exercised," said a spokesman.

However, almost all the feed containing GMOs used in Europe is imported from the US, and strict new rules on labelling would pose major problems because GM and non-GM supplies are not separated in the US.

The Commission was originally due to produce draft rules for feed in April this year, but these were held up by the Commission's resignation.

The delay has also been caused by a clash between Commission food safety experts, responsible for labelling schemes, and environment officials, who oversee the approval procedure for new GM varieties. Food safety officials want a separate approvals procedure for animal feed because up to 20% could derive from GM crops compared to only 2% for human foodstuffs. But environment officials are opposed to a two-tier system.

EU farm ministers are stepping up the pressure for Union-wide rules which would make it compulsory to label animal feed made from genetically modified organisms (GMOs).