United Arab Emirates-GM Food.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES-DUBAI - Genetically modified food is being sold in supermarkets without proper labelling, says a senior official.
\"We follow international standards on regulation whenever new food technologies are imported,\" Khalid Sharif Al Awadhi, head of the Food Control Section in Dubai Municipality, told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the Dubai International Food Safety Conference.
\"Currently it is not mandatory for GM foods to have different labelling,\" he said on Tuesday, adding that the authority would follow international conventions on labelling as and when they are drawn up.
Al Awadhi said that Codex Alimentarius, the regulatory venture between the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation is debating whether mandatory labelling should apply to GM foods.
\"When they make a decision we will also introduce regulations,\" he said.
According to a study by Greenpeace in 2007, around 40 per cent of the food available in the UAE is believed to contain GM materials.
\"A lot of countries import American products and most GM products originate from the United States,\" said Arnaud Apoteker, the Greenpeace campaigner who carried out the UAE study.
Al Awadhi, however, disputed the study\’s findings, saying, \"We don\’t know exactly how much, but it can\’t be as much as 40 per cent. GM foods are found only in certain products like grain and beans. That makes up just a small proportion of the foods available.\"
Food products considered genetically modified foods are those whose DNA is changed through genetic engineering to make them resistant to pesticides.
It is unclear whether GM foods are detrimental to long-term health, but several scientists have accused food manufacturers of using the population as \’guinea pigs\’.
When initial studies suggested that GM foods could harm the intestines of animals, big brands such as Nestle and McDonald\’s announced that they would no longer source GM materials.
\"None of our products imported into the UAE contain GM materials,\" Pascal Zbinden, group leader at the Nestle Research Centre, told Khaleej Times. \"We are no longer doing research in that area.\"
In Europe, laws make it mandatory for manufacturers to label food if there are traces of GM content above 0.9 per cent.
Most lobbyists argue that fewer people would buy GM foods if they had a choice. A recent survey by the United Kingdom\’s Co-op Supermarket group, found that 55 per cent of consumers were against GM foods and a further 38 per cent were yet to be convinced of its benefits.
