Manufacturers Warned To Label Voluntarily Or Face Legal Challenges For Deceptive Trading.

Approval by ANZFA of more GE foods may result in boycotts of companies using hidden GE-ingredients and legal challenges under the fair trading act.

Reports from Australia (see below) show ANZFA have ignored consumer concerns and the growing scientific warnings from groups such as the Royal Society (UK) over the nonsense of deeming GE foods as "substantially equivalent " to normal foods.

" If companies use this stuff they should voluntarily label it as allowed under the law. If they don’t label and try to sideline consumer queries they may be open to legal challenges for misleading consumers," said a supporter of the GE-Free food campaign.
Boycotts of companies sneaking the new GE, and existing GE -derived ingredients into the food supply may also follow.
" The GreenPeace food guide will be reissued in May, and will help people identify the companies they can and cannot trust."

One of the 2 new applications before ANZFA is a canola resistant to bromoxynil, which according to Pesticide Action Network (PAN), has been found to cause developmental abnormalities in mammals, is highly toxic to fish, a carcinogenic and can cause birth defects in humans. This agrochemical is banned in Britain. Resistant GE varieties have increased herbicide residues in crops as a result of higher spray usage. The public can make submissions on 2 new GE foods until the end of March.

FULL STORY BELOW:AUSTRALIA
ANZFA approval of non-labelled GM corn, canola prompts outcry. 11 Feb 2002
Source: just-food.com editorial team

The Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) and biotechnology ethics advocates are at blows over plans to launch new genetically modified foods in supermarkets without warning labels.
ANZFA has approved genetically modified corn and canola oil, for use in breakfast cereals, bread, pastries and snack foods.
The food undergoes distilling in the production, which destroys the DNA and releases the manufacturer and retailer from the obligation to label the end product as genetically modified.

Bob Phelps, director of the GeneEthics Network, warned that the news could prompt a wave of other GM products which would not carry the warning. "People who do not want to - or should not - consume foods which have been genetically modified are simply not going to be any the wiser with this loophole in the law," Phelps said."Government has
created laws to ensure food buyers are misinformed."

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