BEIJING (Reuters) — China is amending its food-safety law to enforce labelling of genetically-modified food that will prevent buyers being misled, state-run news agency Xinhua reported, amid rising public concern over food safety.
China is the world’s largest importer of GMO soybean and is expected to buy more GMO corn overseas, particularly from the United States, to meet its growing demand.
China’s agriculture ministry in 2002 published regulation that required producers to label their products if their products are made from GMO soy, soyoil and soymeal, corn, rapeseed, cotton as well as tomato, but most GMO products sold in the market are not labelled.
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The new food-safety bill will make it mandatory for manufacturers to label their products if they are genetically modified food or contain GM materials listed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Xinhua reported. Offenders will be punished through fines and cancellation of licence.
China has officially approved imports of a type of genetically modified corn at the centre of a string of lawsuits over U.S. grain shipments, seed maker Syngenta AG said on Monday, ending uncertainty after a five-year review.
