The breakdown of conciliation talks leaves consumers without guidance on cloned animal products
The breakdown of conciliation discussions on the revision of the EU's novel foods regulation this month was a disaster for consumers. It was also a terrible indictment of EU politicians' ability to deal with challenges raised by food technologies in an increasingly globalised food supply chain.
This legislation originally dates back to 1997. Revision was necessary to ensure regulations could keep pace with developments and create a centralised approval process for novel foods based on European Food Safety Authority assessments. All of this has been scrapped and it's back to the beginning again.
Consumers are left with little assurance that regulators can keep track of supply chain developments. The failure of the regulatory process means there is no meaningful oversight for products from the offspring of clones, other than voluntary food industry commitments, and no labelling requirements for products of clones or their offspring. The collapse of the legislation will also leave gaps around the approval of foods produced using nanotechnologies.
These technologies have been in the pipeline for years the issues they raise should have been anticipated. It has always been clear that consumers would wish to make choices about whether or not to eat the products of clones and their offspring. Which? research has shown little distinction made between the products of clones and their offspring, with 81% concerned about meat and 80% for milk products.
At the heart of the problem lies the issue of how to balance safety and societal concerns that affect acceptability. From the parliament's perspective, the ethical issues of cloning warranted a ban for both foods from clones and their offspring. But member states also failed to agree to a compromise that food from the offspring of clones should be allowed, but labelled.
It's hard to see how consumers can trust new food technologies if regulation can't keep pace and the government doesn't want to give them a choice. We now have to look to other legislation, such as the EU Food Information Regulations, but there will be little progress unless there is a fundamental rethink by member states.
The breakdown of conciliation discussions on the revision of the EU's novel foods regulation this month was a disaster for consumers. It was also a terrible indictment of EU politicians' ability to deal with challenges raised by food technologies in an increasingly globalised food supply chain.
This legislation originally dates back to 1997. Revision was necessary to ensure regulations could keep pace with developments and create a centralised approval process for novel foods based on European Food Safety Authority assessments. All of this has been scrapped and it's back to the beginning again.
Consumers are left with little assurance that regulators can keep track of supply chain developments. The failure of the regulatory process means there is no meaningful oversight for products from the offspring of clones, other than voluntary food industry commitments, and no labelling requirements for products of clones or their offspring. The collapse of the legislation will also leave gaps around the approval of foods produced using nanotechnologies.
These technologies have been in the pipeline for years the issues they raise should have been anticipated. It has always been clear that consumers would wish to make choices about whether or not to eat the products of clones and their offspring. Which? research has shown little distinction made between the products of clones and their offspring, with 81% concerned about meat and 80% for milk products.
At the heart of the problem lies the issue of how to balance safety and societal concerns that affect acceptability. From the parliament's perspective, the ethical issues of cloning warranted a ban for both foods from clones and their offspring. But member states also failed to agree to a compromise that food from the offspring of clones should be allowed, but labelled.
It's hard to see how consumers can trust new food technologies if regulation can't keep pace and the government doesn't want to give them a choice. We now have to look to other legislation, such as the EU Food Information Regulations, but there will be little progress unless there is a fundamental rethink by member states.
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