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EU takes a cautious approach on novel foods

^{Maize is used as food and feed. Lately, it has been the most genetically modified crop. Maize has a lot of variation, even without genetic tinkering. Photo: Jayegirl99 / Flickr Creative Commons.}

Cloned animals are not yet widely used in food production, and the European Parliament isn’t going to allow selling foodstuff made out of cloned animals in the future either. One reason is that cloned animals tend to suffer excessively of different diseases, deformities, and premature death.

The European Parliament’s approach on the matter is different from U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA). According to FDA, meat and milk from cloned cows, swine and goats can be freely sold as food. FDA’s risk assessment has proved them to be safe. However, there isn’t however enough information about sheep yet.

European parliament also supports the view that foodstuff containing nanoparticles should be restricted by the legislation for novel foods. First association of nanotechnology is probably carbon nanotubes, but it can also be used in cosmetics, for example.

Labels help consumers to choose

According to FDA there are already moisturizer creams available that contain nanoparticles to improve consistency or absorption. Nanotechnology is also used in food packages already. The European Parliament demands that all nano-ingredients should be mentioned on the label of the foodstuff.

Many civic organisations demand that also genetically modified foodstuffs and processed foods containing genetically modified ingredients should be labelled.

The decision given by the European Parliament in July states that for example meat and milk from animals that are fed with genetically modified crops don’t need to be labelled. According to the existing legislation any use of genetically modified organisms in food should be labelled. An exception is traditionally produced food which contains up to 0,9% genetically modified organisms due to contamination, for example.

Novel foods should be labelled to give consumers the possibility to choose. Since official research organizations have different opinions on food safety, the consumers have to bear a huge responsibility for what they eat. Luckily there’s plenty of information available on the web. Have you found a good source of information on the Internet regarding genetic modification? Share it with the rest of us by commenting on this article.

Jan Jansson is a chemistry teacher that spends his little free time doing molecular gastronomic experiments.