Biotech Updates

Corporate Decisions About Labeling GM Foods

March 23, 2007

There remain many challenges to encourage various food companies to label their products as “novel”, “engineered”, or “food that contains genetically modified ingredients”, says Canadian researchers Chris MacDonald and Melissa Whellams. Among the factors preventing a unilateral action include the absence of government intervention and of collective action on the part of the industry, and also lack of clear evidence that the foods pose risk to human health.

MacDonald and Whellams state in their paper published by the Journal of Business Ethics that situations have not yet been encountered to make labeling ethically mandatory for agri-food companies. The researchers mention that companies should not feel obligated to label their products as long as long as they are marketing a legal product which they believe poses no threat to the public.

The full paper can be accessed by subscribers at http://www.springerlink.com/content/q2h7872473t77452/.