The American House of Representatives voted to ban states from forming their own regulations about GMO labelling.
As reported by the Huffington Post, the House instead passed a bill called the Safe and Accurate Food Labelling Act making it voluntary for companies to declare the presence of genetically modified ingredients in their products.
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States such as Vermont, Maine and Connecticut that had recently passed local GMO-labelling laws will be banned from putting them into practice.
This ban will also allow the Food and Drug Administration to define the label “natural” as including genetically modified elements.
Representatives supporting the bill said that scientific evidence outlining the safe use of GMO products is undeniable and this ruling does not have anything to do with the health-related impact of the product but it has everything to do with simplification of rules across the country.
North of the border, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) jointly decide the laws governing federal food labelling policies in Canada under the Food and Drugs Act. Mandatory labelling for foods, including genetically engineered foods, can be required by Health Canada where there are health or safety concerns that could be mitigated through labelling or to highlight a significant nutritional or compositional change.
