Upcoming labeling rules for foods made with genetically modified organisms will likely have an electronic component such as a QR code, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said.
Congress passed a mandatory GMO labeling law in July 2016. The bill requires the Agricultural Department to craft rules implementing the law by mid-2018.
“I believe consumers ought to have a right to know, but how we do that efficiently and effectively, it will probably deal with technology, whether it’s a QR code or whatever,” Perdue said during a panel discussion June 1 at the Montana Ag Summit in Great Falls.
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The key question as the department crafts labeling rules is how much that electronic option will come into play. Food makers pressed hard for Congress to include the option. Consumer groups, however, say a QR code fails to provide enough on-package information and adds a technological barrier for some consumers.
Perdue said that while he supported disclosure, he wasn’t in favor of a lengthy on-package list of GMO information.
“I want people who want to know to the nth degree to have access to the nth degree, but 98 percent of people don’t want to know to the nth degree,” Perdue said. “They just want to know if it tastes good and it costs right.”
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