FSANZ proposal to exempt some GM foods from food safety laws

Consumers and organic producers to lose

Organic food producers are devastated that Australia and New Zealand are sleepwalking towards deregulation of food labelling laws.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to water down the definitions in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code for ‘food produced using gene technology’ and ‘gene technology’.

The right of Australian consumers to choose will be disempowered and organic producers will lose access to markets.

“The organic industry rejects the FSANZ proposal to exclude a number of genetic modifications on food from mandatory labelling”, says Peter Hislop Speers, Chair of Organic Industries of Australia Ltd.

“FSANZ is set on bending to the pressure from high tech agrifood companies who want to use Australia as a bridgehead for their global plans to sneak genetically modified products into all the food we eat.”

“Europe rejects this GM incursion into the foods we eat. Australia should reject it too!”

“FSANZ calls ‘low risk’ the loss of export markets for Australian certified organic food.”

“FSANZ calls ‘low risk’ the inability of consumers or businesses to identify foods that have been produced using genetic modification.”

“Certified Organic foods are chosen by consumers seeking to avoid the risk of long term adverse health outcomes which are still the subject of significant research.”

Mr Hislop Speers said “We think this proposal is designed to confuse rather than clarify. In particular, the assessment promotes a false equivalence that new breeding technique (NBT) food is produced with an outcome that might occur using natural selection techniques. That is clearly not the case, and the onus should be on the proponent to prove the safety of every instance of GM manipulation.”

The organic industry is deeply concerned that tactical GM deregulation of this type will compromise certified organic exports to the European Union and China, and will erode consumer confidence in Australian food producers and manufacturers. Once some GM food is exempt, there will be a lower hurdle to a future proposal to exempt GM food just a little more.

“Overwhelmingly, overseas markets do not want GM foods, and are worried by the environmental contamination of our organic foods with GM breeds,” said Mr Hislop Speers. “And we consider that Australian consumers should be afforded more transparency and safety, not less!”

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