The Hindu : National : Minister seeks explanation on ‘unchecked entry’ of GM foods

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Saturday, Dec 01, 2007
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Minister seeks explanation on ‘unchecked entry’ of GM foods

Gargi Parsai

Activists apprise him of their availability in supermarkets and food chain

NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh has asked the Directorate-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to explain reports that imported genetically modified (GM) food products were entering Indian supermarkets and food chains unchecked.

The move came after representatives of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) and the Greenpeace-India met him here on Wednesday and cautioned about food products imported into India with soya, corn, canola and cottonseed ingredients from GM-producing countries that have no provision for labelling GM products as different from non-GM products. This has raised food safety concerns for consumers.

While stressing that India needed to have a firm base in GM technology, Mr. Ramesh separately wrote a letter to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss urging mandatory labelling of all GM foods entering the country. He asked Dr. Ramadoss to ensure clear identification of those areas in which field trials of GM crops/foods deviated from the regulatory protocol. “Is there an evaluation of what is the ecological and inherent social impact of GM crops on the food sector?”

Kavitha Kuruganti and G.K. Ramanjaneyulu of the CSA and Rajesh Krishnan of the Greenpeace said there was no way Indian authorities could ascertain whether imported food, feed and Living Modified Organisms were the end-products of genetically engineered raw material from GM-producing countries, as it was the responsibility of the exporter to make the declaration at the port of entry as per a notification of the DGFT under the Commerce Ministry on April 7, 2006. India lacked a proper screening mechanism and there were not enough laboratories to test the material at ports of entry.

Placing before journalists samples of caramel syrup, canola oil, sweet corn, pasta sauce, salad dressings and mayonnaise sourced from GM-producing countries, they demanded that such imports be stopped. The government was taking too long, allegedly under pressure from some developed countries, to notify the rules about labelling to give consumers an informed choice. At the same time, there was inordinate delay in the setting up of a Food Safety and Standards Authority and a National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority.

Separately in a letter to Dr. Ramadoss, the NGOs said: “While illegal entry of GM foods into India [mostly in the form of GM soy and corn products] has been happening for several years now, in September 2007, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee/ Ministry of Environment and Forests has put out a notification exempting GM food products from regulatory approval processes… It believes that it is the responsibility of the Health Ministry to look into the safety aspects of GM foods. Based on this, the Environment Ministry removed GM food products from regulatory requirements leaving the matter in limbo.”

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