Jusco to start putting GM labels on food
Date: 08-Sep-99
Country: JAPAN
Jusco, which operates over 300 stores nationwide, has decided to start
labelling genetically-modified (GM) food before the government's label
requirements are implemented from 2001, because of requests from
consumers, a company spokesman said.
"It is the responsibility of a retail company to disclose information
that consumers want to know," he said.
Jusco will begin labelling private-brand food products that are subject
to the government's labelling rules. It plans to gradually extend
labelling to other food products, including food exempted from the
government's label requirements such as vegetable oil, soy source and
corn flakes, the spokesman said.
Japan's Agriculture Ministry, under pressure from consumers, decided
last month that foods produced from GMOs must be specially labelled from
April 2001. Japan has approved 22 varieties of six GM crops - corn,
soybeans, rapeseed, potatoes, cotton and tomatoes - for import and sale
under its safety guidelines. But the government will impose labelling
requirements on these crops and on food products that use them.
Food products in which DNA or protein resulting from gene alteration
cannot be detected using current tec
