Food Labelling laws must be stronger, now
07 December 2010The Food Regulation Ministerial Council received the Blewett report on national Food Labelling Law and Policy recently but did not release it. Gene Ethics calls for immediate publication and says a delay of many months is unacceptable.
The Government should release the Blewett report to the community now so its findings are subject to further public discussion and comment before COAG presents us with a done deal.
We suspect shoppers will still be denied the information on food labels that is needed for real choice. The review was promised at the 2007 election and only begun in October 2009. Thousands of people submitted written comments to the review panel and hundreds attended the public hearings.
Since 1994, when public opinion was first tested, over 90% of Australians have backed full GM labelling but most GM foods remain exempt on the spurious grounds that they are refined so pose no hazard. Experimental animals and their offspring are harmed by some varieties of GM foods approved for sale in Australia.
If GM and cheap imported foods offered real benefits, then food processing and retail industries should willingly back open and honest labelling of all their processed foods.