Industry awaits GM guidelines

3 September 2001



Industry awaits GM guidelines

By FWi staff

GUIDELINES to prevent the contamination of food products with genetically modified ingredients are expected to be issued on Friday (7 September).

A food chain code of practice will help ensure that GM materials constitute no more than 1% of any product, reports the Financial Times.

Under European Union rules, any food exceeding this threshold must be labelled as containing GM material.

The UK guidelines ensuring the rules are adhered to have been drawn up by the Food and Drink Federation and the British Retail Consortium.

Seed suppliers, farmers, commodity brokers and hauliers will all have to adhere to the code, the FT claims.

It will cover the cleaning and inspection of equipment involved in food production, from seed drills to factory production lines, the paper says.

The code is expected to include a know your supplier component for processors and retailers.

Guidance is likely to be given on auditing suppliers and ensuring their staff know how to keep GM products out of food.

Another key issue will be ensuring GM and non-GM commodities on ships, lorries and in storage are segregated.

The food industry sees the guidelines as vital in ensuring that companies are not open to prosecution by making unsubstantiated claims, says the FT.