WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- The Food and Drug Administration has deemed genetically engineered food safe, but critics want mandatory government review and labeling of GE products so consumers can identify them and choose traditionally grown foods if they have safety concerns.
Companies that produce GE food can submit voluntary safety reviews to the FDA, but are not required to do so. The FDA also does not require GE labels, because it has determined GE food is substantially equivalent to conventional food.
GE food has been inserted with a foreign gene, such as from a bacterium, to express pest resistance -- which reduces the need for pesticide sprayings -- as well as other desired characteristics.
Consumer polls over the years have shown a majority of Americans still know little about GE food, although it has been sold in grocery stores for a decade, and few voice concerns about it.
Those shopper who do have issues with GE food, however, are demanding more information and choice, which consumer groups say are needed to establish confidence in this market sector in light of evidence consumers may be moving away from the GE concept toward the booming organic market.
Controversy about whether GE food should be labeled was stirred anew last year when the United States brought a complaint against the European Union for violating fair trade laws before the World Trade Organization dispute settlement committee.
The EU had banned imports of new GE food -- which recently was lifted -- and has mandated labeling and tracing of GE products. U.S. trade officials argue that the moves constitute illegal barriers to trade for GE-food producers.
Advocates for stricter regulation and labeling point to survey data from the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, an independent biotechnology group, to show consumers support mandatory FDA safety review.
A 2003 Pew poll showed 89 percent of respondents agreed with the statement: "Companies should be required to submit safety data to the FDA for review, and no genetically modified food product should be allowed on the market until the FDA determines it is safe."
Genetically modified is a term that encompasses the genetically engineered sector and the terms are used interchangeably.
Pew data from 2001 show 75 percent of respondents said it was important to them to know whether a product contains GM ingredients.
In June, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., introduced a bill that would require FDA approval for all GE food with safety data made public and open to comment.
Opponents of mandatory review and labeling, such as the Grocery Manufacturers of America, believe policies should be based on science -- which, it said, has proven GE food is safe -- not politics.
The GMA also said consumers can avoid GE food by buying organic products -- with critics countering that doing so places a price premium on choice as organic foods usually are more expensive.
Carol Tucker Foreman, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, said opponents argue the science line but people shop based on other factors, such as emotion and trust, and they should get the information they want.
"The consumer bill of rights that's been out there 40 years -- the right to know is one of them," Foreman told UPI.
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Elizabeth Suh was a summer intern for UPI Science News. E-mail [email protected]
