Calling it “transparency,” the Trump administration’s proposed GMO disclosure rule could allow confusing labels for genetically modified foods, said Scott Faber, the Environmental Working Group’s senior vice president for government affairs.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s draft disclosure rule could exempt 10,000 foods that contain highly refined GMO sugars and oils. With that loophole, about one in six foods produced with GMOs might be exempt from disclosure, said Faber.
The rule would make on-package labeling of GMOs optional, and if companies did choose to disclose GMOs on labels, they could use language and symbols likely to confuse consumers, he said.
Instead of the widely understood terms “genetically modified” or “genetically engineered,” the rule would require companies to use the terms “bioengineered” or “bioengineered food ingredient.”
Companies also could choose not to label GMOs on the package, but instead, use digital codes that consumers can scan with smartphones – without providing alternatives for shoppers who don’t own smartphones or whose cell phones don’t provide that service.
More than 11,300 people and organizations have submitted comments on the GMO proposal, including the EWG.
“Access to information about GMO foods should be available to all consumers, and every food made with GMO ingredients should be required to disclose that information,” Faber said. “The Trump administration and some Big Food and Big Ag lobbyists may not want consumers to know if the food they eat has been genetically altered by scientists, but the American people overwhelmingly do.
“Trump once attacked President Obama as the least transparent president ever, but this proposed rule would bury basic information about the food Americans feed their families in a quagmire of secrecy and confusion,” he said.
