GM food restrictions from January 1

Importers are warning of a possible shortage of popular food items as they scramble to meet the requirement of a new regulation that restricts the importation of Genetically Modified (GM) food, which will to come into effect from January 1.

The regulations make government approval and labelling mandatory for all food containing or derived from GM organisms. However importers told The Sunday Times FT that the regulation is likely to lead to a shortage of many imported food items that are ‘non- GM’ since they are facing severe practical difficulties in getting their hands on the technical information demanded by the authorities.

The regulation says that no persons shall import any product with GM organisms as food for human consumption, any product consisting of GM organisms or any product or food containing ingredients produced from GM organisms without the approval of the Chief Food Authority (CFA) Dr. Athula Kahandaliyanage, who is also the Director General of Health.

From January 1, all food containing GM organisms or derived from GM organisms must be labelled as “GM food” having obtained the prior approval of the CFA.

Assistant Director of Food Control Administration of the Ministry of Health, P. Madarasinghe explained that any food products which are likely to fall into the GM category but are declared by the importer as “GM- free” must also be certified by the CFA.

However, a leading importer who is also member of the interest group at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce explained that the technical information that the Food Control Unit is demanding in return for this ‘non- GM’ certification is impossible to obtain. He said, “If we want to import soya sauce we have to provide clarification as to what type of GM has been conducted. No manufacturer would have that sort of information. We have to get hold of the supplier of the soya bean and he has to identify where the bean originated from, but the consignment of soya bean could have a mixture of varieties.”

He added that the government has issued a list of crops that could potentially contain GM food and importers are required to obtain approval for all related food items. The list includes soya, wheat, tomatoes and potatoes. He pointed out that because of the inability to furnish the technical information required by the government many importers would be forced to halt the importation of popular food items even if they are ‘non- GM’.

Importers pointed out that banning a certain type of crop would have been a more viable approach to regulating GM food. They noted that it is far more practical to halt the importation of food containing a particular type of crop then attempting to find the source of the ingredients of all food items included into the blacklist. “For example we can stop importing even thousand items containing a certain type of wheat, but under this regulation we have to get approval for each and every item that contains wheat to make sure its non-GM. That is not commercially viable”, an importer said.

Madarasinghe conceded that the approval process could take anything from one week to a month and therefore said it would be advisable for GM food importers to apply for approval prior to placing their purchase orders. He added that certain products such as milk powder could obtain a blanket certification while other products may need certification for each consignment.

“An expert panel has been named to guide the authorisation and testing process while laboratories at all universities as well as the Genetech Lab are available and geared for some fast paced testing,” Madarasinghe said.

Meanwhile, monitoring of food imports would take place from the entry point at the port and the airport. Customs officials, health inspectors, officials from the Department of Animal Health and Production as well as officials from the Food Control Unit would be standing by at these entry points to detect GM food and block any unapproved food items from entering the market.

On the other hand if unapproved and unlabeled GM food products are detected from the open market, legal provisions are in place to cease the entire consignment and to take legal action against the importer.

In 2002, 21 products were identified from the Sri Lankan market as products likely to contain GM organisms. At the time the National Bio- Safety Framework Development project spearheaded by Prof. Athula Perera was set up to investigate the need for GM food regulations. The project team had recommended that a new law be passed in a bid to monitor and control GM food, seeds as well as processed products that are derived from GM organisms.

Prof. Perera told The Sunday Times FT that the gazette regulation that would be coming into effect next year is only an interim solution that would be enforced until the law comes into effect. “A legal committee is currently reviewing the proposed legislation,” he said.