Novel Food Regulation has tenth anniversary

1 February 2007

The novel foods regulation, that set up rules regarding labelling of foodstuffs that consisted of, or might contain, genetically modified plants, came into force 10 years ago, on January 27th 1997. In 2004 the rules were rephrased in an even stricter regulation.

During the past decennium, some contradictory developments could be observed, as the GMO Compass Newsletter notices. The rules and the discussions surrounding it, remained tense. The number of new products actually entering the European market under the regulation remained very limited indeed. Whilst, at the same time, the worldwide groth of acreage regarding genetically modified crops grew tremendously, with double digit growth percentages every year. The most recent IAAA figures show more than 100 million hectares were planted with gmo's against 1,7 million hectares a decade earlier.

source: GMO Compass Newsletter, issue 12, 31 januari 2007