Illegal GMO in Our Food

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, has discovered large-scale illegal presence and sale of genetically modified (GM) processed foods in the country. This is in spite of the fact that, without the approval of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the production, sale and import of GMO foods is banned in the country.

What was the study?

CSE’s Pollution Monitoring Laboratory (PML) tested 65 food products available in Indian markets – 35 imported brands and 30 domestic ones. These food products were purchased randomly from retail outlets in Delhi-NCR, Punjab and Gujarat.

What were the key findings of the study?

• 32% (21 out of 65) of the food product samples tested were GM-positive. About 80% (16 out of 21) of those which tested positive were imported. These were made of (or used) soy, corn and rapeseed and were imported from Canada, the Netherlands, Thailand, the UAE, and the US.
• 56% (9/16) of oil samples, 25% (10/39) of packaged food samples and 25% (2/8) of infant food samples were GM-positive.
• The CSE lab also tested five samples of cottonseed oil from India – all tested positive. This is because BT-cotton is the single GM crop that has been allowed for cultivation in the country. However, no permission has been given for the use of GM cottonseed oil for human consumption. Secondly, cottonseed oil is also mixed in other edible oils, particularly vanaspati, which means we are consuming it without knowing.
• Other than edible oil, no processed food sample manufactured in India was found GM-positive.
• GM contamination was found in infant food, sold for children with medical ailments, including allergies. The products had no label warning parents that the food had GM ingredients.
• 65% (13/20) GM-positive samples did not mention anything about GM on their labels.
• Three products made false claims suggesting that no GM ingredient is used.
• Only four products carried labels of genetic engineering technology. 

What are the relevant laws and regulations?

• The Environment Protection Act (EPA) strictly prohibits import, export, transport, manufacture, process, use or sale of any genetically engineered organisms except with the approval of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
• The 2006 Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA)prohibits import, manufacture, use or sale of GM food without FSSAI’s approval.
• The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011 mandate that GM must be declared on the food package.
• The Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 says that GM food cannot be imported without the permission of GEAC.
• Anyone who imports, manufactures, uses or sells GM food, is liable to be prosecuted under the above Acts. 

The FSSAI has now issued a draft notification on labelling, which includes GM food. CSE’s responses to this move are:

·      The FSSAI notification says that any food that has 5% or more GM ingredients, shall be labelled, provided this GM ingredient constitutes the top three ingredients in terms of percentage in the product. The exemption limit of 5% is very relaxed compared to other countries such as the EU, Australia and Brazil, which have limits at or below 1%.

·      It is very difficult for government to quantify the GM content in all foods: the tests are prohibitively expensive and technically cumbersome. This means that the regulatory agency is asking companies to ‘self-declare’ and say that they are within the 5% limit and therefore, need not carry the label of GM.

·      The draft GM labelling regulations shows the double standard of FSSAI. On one hand, FSSAI has set stringent conditions for labelling organic food, which is a safe and healthy. At the same time, it is proposing to give a huge exemption for labelling GM food, safety of which has been a matter of concern.

What does CSE recommend?

• The FSSAI must identify all GM products being sold in the market and prosecute companies and traders responsible.
• It must set up a safety assessment system for approval of both domestic and imported GM foods.
• The limit for GM labelling exemption should be set at 1% GM DNA and not on the basis of weight of ingredients. Only unintentional contamination should be exempted.
• The FSSAI should adopt qualitative screening as an enforcement tool and the onus of proving unintentional presence should be on the food manufacturer. It must set up laboratories to screen GM foods for effective monitoring.
• A symbol-based label such as ‘GM’ should be displayed on the front of packs which carry GM food -- just like the green “tick” along with the words “Jaivik Bharat” proposed for organic food.