GM food draft regulations favour interests of businesses, not citizens: GM-Free coalition writes to FSSAI
- January 19, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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GM food draft regulations favour interests of businesses, not citizens: GM-Free coalition writes to FSSAI
Coalition for a GM-Free India:
- It is a large informal nationwide network of organisations and individuals concerned about the environmental release of GMOs.
- Aim: The coalition is campaigning and advocating to keep India GM-Free, and to shift our farming towards a sustainable path.
- This network is opposed to the environmental release of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) given the potential adverse health and environmental impacts, in addition to the fact that GMOs also are taking away valuable research and other resources from more lasting solutions.
Why in news:
- Coalition for a GM-Free India has expressed disappointment and concern over the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) draft regulations on genetically modified (GM) food.
- They said the regulations were giving short shrift to citizens’ interests in favour of business interests.
Concerns raised over the draft regulation include:
- In the draft regulations, FSSAI had proposed mandatory prior approval from the regulator to manufacture, sell and import food or ingredients produced from genetically modified organisms (GMO).
- Besides, all GMO food products, containing 1 per cent or more of the GM ingredient considered individually, must be labelled with the words ‘contains genetically modified organisms.
- There was no provision for a long-term comprehensive and independent testing regime.
- It does not have provisions for independent data analysis and public scrutiny.
- The draft regulations have ignored GM feed, even though GM feed (animal feed) also affects the safety of the human food chain.
- The draft regulations only refer to the food authority deciding on applications, which do not have biosafety experts.