By Shauna Rempel
It’s been a year since the federal government came out with standards about labelling food that contains genetically engineered ingredients, but you likely won’t find any GE stickers on your supermarket shelves.
That’s because labelling GE food — products that contain organisms that have been changed by transferring or removing genes — is voluntary.
“I go to shops and I haven’t seen a single label saying GE,” says Eric Darier of Greenpeace Canada, which lobbied for mandatory labels on GE products. Greenpeace publishes its own GE-free grocery guide.
An estimated 70 per cent of processed food in Canada contains a GE ingredient such as corn, canola or soy.
Labelling standards for GE or GE-free food were established after four years of consultation with farming, environmental and industry groups.
Several manufacturers were waiting for the standards to come out last year in order to change their labels, says Francis Bustamante, a biotechnology officer with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Darier says those are likely companies that want to highlight the GE-free status of their products. But if Canadian manufacturers have voluntarily started to let customers know that their products do contain GE ingredients, the federal government doesn’t know about it.
The CFIA, which enforces labelling regulations, doesn’t track which companies have adopted the standard. “We don’t monitor for voluntary standards,” says Bustamante.
Food and Consumer Products of Canada, which represents 150 companies, doesn’t keep track either. But according to CFIA, it’s a moot point to label GE foods because there’s no proof they carry a health hazard.
“As far as we’re concerned it’s not a safety issue,” says Bustamante. “It really is just a consumer information method-of-production issue.”
If they were known to pose a health risk, they wouldn’t be on the shelves in the first place. Under the Food and Drugs Act, all food must be labelled if it poses a threat to the health and safety of the public. For example, food containing traces of nuts must have a label warning customers with an allergy.
David Rose, co-owner of Bank Street’s Herb & Spice Shop, says a mandatory labelling policy would make his life easier because his customers would know what they are buying. “We would be happier if things were clearer in terms of labelling,” he said.
Negative publicity around so-called “Frankenfoods” makes it unlikely that companies will market GE ingredients.
“There doesn’t appear to be a market,” says Denise Dewar, who sat on the standards committee for the lobby group CropLife Canada.
Canada has had GE crops for 10 years, beginning with canola. The federal government has since approved over 60 genetically modified foods for sale.
While most crops are altered to make plants hardier and better able to withstand herbicides, industry supporters like CropLife say biotechnology also means consumers can benefit from food that tastes better and lasts longer. Eventually, GE food could even pack an added nutritional or medicinal punch.
But Darier says the jury’s still out on whether genetically engineered foods will cause future health problems. “GE might not be doing harm, but there is a high level of uncertainty.”
Darier says Canada should have made GE labels mandatory in 2001, with a private member’s bill to label all food products in Canada that contain genetically altered ingredients. The bill received support from the public and former health minister, but was defeated in the House of Commons.
Mandatory labelling has been established in at least 40 countries, including Australia, Japan and the European Union.
In Canada, manufacturers can list products as being GE-free even if they contain up to five per cent genetically engineered ingredients. By contrast, the European Union only allows for 0.9 per cent GE content.
But Dewar says the five per cent threshold is only to allow for accidental contamination that may occur from the seed to the plate. Contamination could come from harvesting equipment, rail cars and trucks used for GE and non-GE food.
Canada’s GE labelling standards are being reviewed every three to five years.
Rose, who carries organic and GE-free products at his store, has this advice for confused or concerned customers: “Go organic if you want to be sure.”