The Ministry of Primary Industries is failing to monitor food labelling requirements relating to genetic engineering and irradiation, the Green Party said today.

"New Zealanders deserve to know when they are eating food that is genetically engineered or irradiated, but the Government isnt making sure that companies label these foods properly," said Green Party genetic engineering spokesperson Steffan Browning.

Official information released to the Green Party by the Ministry of Primary Industries shows that the last systematic monitoring of food labelling compliance was in 2003. Furthermore, it shows the Government does not intend to schedule any systematic monitoring of labelling compliance for irradiated food in the future.

"New Zealanders want to know and deserve to know how their food has been produced and treated, but the Government isnt checking to see that companies are correctly labelling GE or irradiated food," said Mr Browning.

"Companies will know that the Government isnt conducting systematic checks, and could be exploiting this lack of monitoring.

"The Government shouldnt simply trust companies to do the right thing when companies have a clear financial incentive not to label GE or irradiated food.

"Its not good enough that its been a decade since the Government last monitored for GE labelling.

"How can New Zealanders be confident that companies will label foods as GE when the companies know that theyre not going be checked," said Mr Browning.

See the article here:
MPI 'failing to monitor labelling of GE food'

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