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Safety of Modified Food Taken Up by UN - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum Safety of Modified Food Taken Up by UN
By Jonathan Fowler
Associated Press
July 8, 2001
The top United Nations food standards body has agreed to draw up global guidelines to ensure the safety of genetically modified food in supermarkets.
The 165 member states of the Codex Alimentarius Commission concur that foods containing genetically modified organisms should be tested, in particular for their potential to cause allergic reactions--and they should be labeled if they do.
The commission members were unable to agree whether labels stating food has been modified should be mandatory. "This is the first global step toward the safety assessment of genetically modified foods," Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of the World Health Organization, said Friday. "International agreement on how to perform risk assessment of genetically modified food will help all countries."
Supporters of genetically modified food have said manipulating plants can make them more resistant to disease and can reduce the use of pesticides that can harm the environment. But opponents say not enough is known about the potential health effects on consumers.
Some countries, especially in Europe, strongly favor measures making it possible to trace all foods and their components to their point of origin. Others, including the United States, argue such a system would be unworkable. "We have to ensure consumers are not deceived by what they buy," said Alan Randell, secretary of the Codex commission. "But we have also to ensure that a tracing system doesn't create extensive costs." A commission task force hopes to have draft guidelines ready by 2003, when the body next meets, Randell said.
The Codex commission, established in 1961, is a joint body of the World Health Organization and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization. At the meeting in Geneva, the group failed to agree on a mandatory ban on the use of bone and meat meal in animal feed.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, is believed to have been caused by contaminated feed prepared from animal carcasses. A form of the lethal brain-wasting disease that affects humans is believed to be linked to the consumption of infected meat.
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