GMO Foods Regulation

Food Regulation
Food Business Technology 2019
Group
Kevin Christopher Indro B. / 02320171001
Regina Leticia Wikarsa / 02320171009
Sebastian Prathama / 02320171010
Florencia Belinda / 02320171016
United Kingdom Turkey
Overview on GMO Food Regulation

Products that contains more The government has taken the line
than 0.9% GM material must be that GMOs are not safe and so no
labelled ‘GMO Foods’ safe threshold level can be set.
Overview

1
 United Kingdom
Overview
The UK is generally viewed as having a restrictive approach towards genetically modified organisms
(GMOs) and crops; however, recently there appears to have been a slow shift toward greater
acceptance of them.
1. Genetically modified (GM) crops are currently not grown commercially in the UK, but they are
imported. These crops are primarily used in animal feed and a few food products.
2. There is no general prohibition on the planting of GM crops, but planting them is only permitted “if
a robust risk assessment indicates that it is safe for people and the environment.”
3. The government has stated that if GM crops are commercially grown in the UK, it will implement
“pragmatic and proportionate measures to segregate these from conventional and organic
crops, so that choice can be exercised and economic interests appropriately protected.”
4. In the past, there have been protests when GM crops have been planted, and anti-GM groups
frequently destroy such areas. There are strict labeling rules in place that require the disclosure
of GM products if they have been used.
 Turkey
Overview
● The legislation bans the cultivation of GM crops in Turkey
● It requires all GMOs, including imports, to be approved for use in Turkey and establishes
a strict policy of testing for products potentially containing GMOs
● No GMO events have been granted approval for food use in Turkey;
● There is a zero tolerance threshold for the presence of unapproved GMOs in Turkey.
This effectively applies to all GMO events without any form of approval in Turkey and to all GMOs including
those with approval in Turkey if the products containing or derived from them are destined for non feed
use;
● It is, however, interesting to note that given no GMOs have yet been given approval for food use, no food
products sold in Turkey will carry positive GMO labelling unless they are ‘illegal

Overall, the Turkish GMO approval system differs from all other countries with a regulatory approval mechanism
(including the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Brazil and
Argentina); it lacks transparency and is not based on sound science.
Definition

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United Kingdom
Definition of GMO Foods
Part IV, section 6 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 defines an organism as genetically modified
if

(4) . . . any of the genes or other genetic material in the organism—

[F4 (a) have been artificially modified, or

(b) are inherited or otherwise derived, through any number of replications, from genes or other genetic
material (from any source) which were so modified.]

[F5 (4A) Genes or other genetic material in an organism are “artificially modified” for the purposes of
subsection (4) above if they are altered otherwise than by a process which occurs naturally in mating or
natural recombination.]
Turkey
Definition of GMO Foods

Turkey Biosafety Law 2010 Section 1 Article 2.

(i) Genetically Modified Organism (GMO): Any live being –except human beings– obtained through gene
transfer by modern biotechnological methods.

(k) GMO and products thereof: Products partly or completely obtained from GMOs which contain or
consist of GMOs.
Labelling and Claims

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 United Kingdom
Manner of Marking or Labelling
All labelling, including the additional labelling required for foods produced in whole or in part
from genetically modified organisms, must comply with the general requirements prescribed
by the Genetically Modified Food (England) Regulations 2004.

All particulars must appear on one of the following:

● the packaging
● a label attached to the packaging
● a label that is clearly visible through the packaging
● commercial documents (where the sale is not to the final consumer)

and must be:

● easy to understand
● clearly legible and indelible
● marked in a conspicuous place in such a way as to be clearly visible
● not in any way hidden, obscured or interrupted by any other written or pictorial matter
 United Kingdom
'GM-free' or 'Produced from non-GM material' claims
For products consistently 100% free from genetically modified material they are currently permitted, as long as
such claims can be substantiated. However, as many products are exempt from current labelling requirements,
as outlined above, it is advisable not to make such a statement.

Always remember that additives, flavourings and extraction solvents you use may have been produced from
genetically modified organisms.

It is an offence to apply a false description to any food and this could result in an unlimited fine.

A tolerance of 0.9% is allowed for small quantities of GM contamination in non-GM foods but only for products
from sources that are said not to be genetically modified and that have good control systems throughout the
supply chain. This tolerance is only applicable to GM products that already have an EU approval. There is no
threshold for any GM product that does not have an EU approval in place.
 Turkey
Positive Claim Labelling
1. No GMOs have yet been given approval for food use, no food products sold in Turkey will
carry positive GMO labelling unless they are ‘illegal’;
2. The New GMO Regulations enable positive claim labelling where, it shall be permissible,
according to sections 18(1)(g) and 19(1)(e) respectively for food and feed labels to bear
statements on equivalent products that are free of GMOs that they ‘do not contain’, ‘do
not consist of’ or ‘do not derive from GMOs’.
GMO Foods Threshold

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 United Kingdom
GMO Threshold

The United Kingdom has given threshold of minimum

0.9% GMO ingredients on products should labelled and
claimed.

But, there has been some exemptions on GMO threshold.

 United Kingdom
Exemptions for products containing ingredients produced from GMOs
The additional labelling requirements do not apply to the following:

● food that contains genetically modified material that is accidentally introduced or technically
unavoidable and does not exceed the threshold of 0.9% (applies to each individual ingredient)*
constituents of an ingredient that have been temporarily separated during the manufacturing process and
later reintroduced but not in excess of their original proportions
● additives whose presence in a given foodstuff is solely due to the fact that they were contained in one or
more ingredients of that foodstuff, provided that they serve no technical function in the finished product
● additives that are used as processing aids
● substances used in the quantities strictly necessary as solvents or media for additives or flavouring
● substances that are not additives but are used in the same way and with the same purpose as processing
aids and are still present in the finished product, even if in an altered form
● products such as meat, milk and eggs from animals fed on GM animal feed
● products produced with GM technology - for example, cheese produced from GM enzymes
 United Kingdom
Exemptions for products containing ingredients produced from GMOs
[*For example, if a dish contains a sauce with soy flour in it, it is the soy flour
that must contain less than 0.9% GM material, not the sauce or the dish. This
applies only to GMOs that are permitted for use in the European Union (EU). The
EU register of authorised GMOs is available on the Europa website. There is no
permitted level for unauthorised GMOs.]
 Turkey
GMO threshold
- The New GMO Regulations define ‘threshold’ in section 4(k) as ‘The minimum limit for approved genes, which
a product shall be required to be labelled as containing GMO’
- According to the Biosafety Council Regulations, the Council is to provide its opinion as to the threshold level
in the light of the respective committee’s scientific assessment (sections 7(1)(g) and 10(1)).
- But still considering that the European Commission’s ‘Recommendation of 13 July 2010 on guidelines for the
development of national coexistence measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional
and organic crops’, which in the context of co-existence measures have arguably allowed greater leeway to
Member States to adopt varying threshold levels, notwithstanding that co-existence is not an issue in
Turkey’s case since cultivation of GMOs are not in any event permitted under the current legislation.
- Turkey does not produce any GM food or feed; but it allows to import GM food or feed upon authorization
UK Declaration
and Traceability

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 United Kingdom
Obligation to declare information

All businesses that supply food direct to the public, from supermarkets to fish
and chip shops, must inform the public if any of their products contain GM soya
or maize. Public service and school canteens, hospitals, HM prisons, military
catering establishments and similar premises are also required to declare the
presence of genetically modified ingredients in the same way as commercial
premises. This applies whether the food is sold or supplied free.

The law only requires action if foods you sell do contain GM ingredients. If this
does apply, you may inform consumers by various means.
 United Kingdom
Traceability

For products consisting of or containing GMOs (such as soya), written

documentation is required to be passed on throughout all stages of the supply
chain. The documentation must state which of the food ingredients is produced
from GMOs, or in the case of products for which no ingredients list exists,
indicate that the food is produced from GMOs. Each operator in the supply chain
must retain copies of the written documentation for a minimum period of five
years.
Legislation

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United Kingdom
Legislation used
● EU Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and
feed
● EU Regulation (EC) No 1830/2003 concerning the traceability and
labelling of genetically modified organisms and the traceability of food
and feed products produced from genetically modified organisms
● Genetically Modified Food (England) Regulations 2004
● Genetically Modified Organisms (Traceability and Labelling)
(England) Regulations 2004
● EU Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information
to consumers
● Food Information Regulations 2014
 Turkey
Turkish Legislation on GMOs
LEGAL CONTEXT

The Turkish Biosafety Law (Law No. 5977), reviewed in the July 2010 issue of JIPLP concurrently came with
regulations which published on Official Gazette No. 27671, 13 August 2010:

- Regulations on Genetically Modified Organisms and Products Thereof (the ‘New GMO Regulations’)
consisting of 26 sections and four appendices including
● a specimen application form for imports of GMOs (Appendix 1),
● a sample registration form (Appendix 4)
● several lists on the information required where applications for the deliberate release of GMOs other than plants for experimental purposes
(Appendix 2)
● for the deliberate release of genetically modified plants for experimental purposes (Appendix 3) are concerned.

The Regulations Governing the Import, Processing, Export, Control, and Supervision of Organisms and Pro- ducts, the Genetic Structure of which
have been Modified for the Purposes of Foodstuffs and Animal Feed (the ‘Former GMO Regulations’, Official Gazette No. 27388, 26 October 2009), have
thus been repealed through section 24(1) of the New GMO Regulations.

- Regulations on the Operating Procedures and Rules for the Biosafety Council and Committees (the
‘Biosafety Council Regulations’)
 Turkey
Turkish Legislation on GMOs
The crop seed industry in Turkey is mainly regulated by the following legislation:
● Law No 5488 Agriculture Law 18 April 2006.
● Law No 5553 Seed Law 31 October 2006.
● Law No 5042 Law on Protection of Breeders' Rights of New Plant Varieties 8 January 2004.
● Law No 5977 Biosafety Law 18 March 2010.
● Law No 5996 Veterinary Services, Plant Health, Food and Feed Law 11 June 2010.

Regulations on the following are also in place:

● Authorisation and Inspection in the Seed Business Sector.
● Protection of Breeders' Rights of New Plant Varieties.
● Registration of Plant Varieties.
● Transfer of Authority in Seed Services.
● Genetically modified organisms (GMO) and GMO Products.
● Working Principles of the Biosafety Board and the Committee.

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MFAL) is the main authority supervising the crop seed industry. It has general
directorates for the following:
● Plant production (seed industry policies, incentives, subsidies, production, supply, import, export, registrations,
certifications, inspections and protection of new plant varieties).
● Agricultural research and policies (variety development and breeding).
● Food and control (sanitary and phytosanitary standards and quarantine services).
News about GMO Foods in England
Thank you