Mandatory labelling of genetically modified (GM) food in India is likely to be delayed as the Union health ministry has planned to pass on the responsibility to the newly set up autonomous Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSA).
In March, last year, the committee of experts and stakeholders constituted by the Union health ministry under the chairmanship of the additional director-general of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Shiv Lal, had unanimously recommended mandatory labelling of all GM foods irrespective of the threshold level.
More than a year has lapsed. The panel recommendations on a vital issue like mandatory labelling of GM food has not been implemented due to pressures from the biotech industry and the US, which had cited reasons for hampering global trade. Making several excuses for the delay, the Union health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss speaking to FE said, “We have decided to pass on the recommendations of the panel to FSSA to decide on the issue. I am of the view that all food items should be labelled disclosing its ingredients.” The FSSA has been set up in July this year, with PI Suvrathan as its chairman and G Balachandran as its chief executive officer. Under the Food Safety and Standards Act – 2006, the FSSA has powers to regulate GM food. The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), which has exclusive powers to regulate all GM products under the Environment Protection Act-1986 and EP Rules-1989, has also not been proactive on the issue of labelling of GM food, even though the annual amendments to the Foreign Trade Policy made in April 2006 had said that unlabelled GM products import would attract penal action under Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act-1992. Already several NGOs have brought to notice cases of unlabelled GM products being imported.
Ramadoss said that he was not satisfied with the FSS Act- 2006 and that his ministry table a bill in Parliament for amending certain provisions. “The draft bill, which subsequently became an Act of the Parliament, was drafted and piloted by the promoter agency, the ministry for food processing industries (MFPI) and therefore has some lacunae. The MFPI insisted that it would anchor the FSSA and it was finally decided that it would be supported by the health ministry,” he said.
Regarding multiplicity of food laws unified under FSS Act-2006, he said that his ministry was notifying, from time to time, such laws under the Act. Meanwhile the Union ministry for science and technology is gearing up to table a bill in the Parliament for setting up of the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) replacing the GEAC. It has proposed that NBRA would be anchored by the promoter agency, department of biotechnology (DBT) and would regulate all aspects of transgenic technology, including the labelling of GM food.