New Labeling for GMO Food Disclosure

On December 20th, 2018, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released 239 pages of the final rule for the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard.

The USDA rule prohibits using the term GMO. Food producers will be required to use a new term "bioengineered (BE) food"

Bioengineered food or (BE) are those that contain detectable genetic material that has been modified through certain lab techniques and cannot be created through conventional breeding or found in nature.




And to make things a little more confusing, instead of simply adding labeling to food packaging, food producers will have four disclosure options to use.

They can use:
1. on-package text
2. an environmental-friendly looking symbol
3. an electronic link
4. a text message


This regulation, called the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS), must be implemented by January 1, 2020.
Small companies have until January 1, 2021.


Some of the things it Excludes:
1. Certified Organic foods
2. foods with undetectable modified genetic materials
3. food served in a restaurant
4. ready-to-eat items prepared by grocery stores
5. food made by “very small food manufacturers” with annual receipts of less than $2.5 million (which means 74% of food manufacturers and 45% of dietary supplement manufacturers do not have have comply with bioengineered labels)
6. distilled spirits, wines, or malt beverages
7. pet food and feed for animals
8. food derived from an animal (meat, eggs, milk, honey, rennet and other enzymes derived from animals) that has eaten bioengineered feed
9. multi-ingredient food product that contains meat, poultry, or egg product (including beef broth, if identified as a composite ingredient) as the first ingredient
10. multi-ingredient food product that contains broth, stock, water, or similar solution as the first ingredient, and a meat, poultry, or egg product as the second ingredient
11. processing aids and enzymes if they are not listed as ingredients
13. up to 5% inadvertent presence of bioengineered ingredients


The more you read, the more confusing it gets.

[link to www.biofortified.org (secure)]

and

[link to www.biofortified.org (secure)]