Retailers and chilled food manufacturers have their own policies regarding the use of genetically modified food or feed ingredients, reflecting customer demands. However, all companies must comply with the regulations for GM labelling which came into force in April 2004. These regulations require that:
- Foods from a GM source or with ingredients from a GM source (e.g. edible oils, flour etc) must be labelled as GM, whether or not GM is actually detected in the final food.
- Foods produced with GM technology (e.g. enzymes) but not gentically modifed themselves do not have to be labelled as GM.
- Livestock products (e.g. meat, milk etc) from animals fed GM animal feed do not have to be labelled as GM
Producers who use ingredients from non-GM sources may also indicate this on the label and if GM is accidentally present in food it does not have to be labelled if there is less than 0.9% approved GM varieties, or less than 0.5% for unapproved GM varieties.
