2001 AACC Annual Meeting Charlotte, North Carolina October 14-18, 2001 Charlotte Convention Center

Agricultural biotechnology is providing farmers a way to produce crops in a more efficient and environmentally sustainable manner. This technology also offers the capability to produce foods with processing advantages, nutritional enhancements, and other compositional and functional properties of benefit to consumers. As with any food product, consumers should be able to obtain the information they want and need to make informed choices about the purchase of products produced through use of modern biotechnology. With respect to the role of food labeling in the context of agricultural biotechnology, there are four common labeling paradigms in use today. Food labels are required to disclosure of meaningful changes in food and food ingredient composition, functional property, nutritional profile, or safety by nearly all government-required food labels. Negative labeling, i.e., "does not contain" is possible to satisfy consumers who want the option of choosing foods that have not been produced using modern biotechnology. Recently, guidelines have been suggested under which manufacturers can reliably inform consumers that a food is "non-Agbiotech." Likewise, a positive label is possible to state that the product contains an ingredient derived from modern plant biotechnology. Lastly, some countries require mandatory labeling of foods and food ingredients produced from genetically modified crops for information purposes, even when those food products are substantially equivalent to traditional counterparts. Such labeling is based on the presence of presence of newly expressed protein or introduced DNA. Generally, it is held that any labeling option be truthful and non-misleading, enforceable on the basis of sound scientific principles, and not impose unreasonable burdens on the market. The requirements for positive, negative, voluntary and mandatory labeling and the associated thresholds vary by country. An overview of the existing or proposed requirements for each of the labeling options specific for modern agricultural biotechnology derived products in each world area will be presented.