Soy, corn and tomato products are among the first kinds of
transgenic or genetically-modified foods that must be labeled to
protect the rights of consumers, according to a recent regulation
issued by the Chinese
Ministry of
Agriculture that will take effect tomorrow.
While there is no large-scale manufacture of transgenic products as
yet in China, transgenic foods have already entered Chinese
citizens' lives through imported agricultural products, many of
which have been genetically modified. Most of the large quantities
of soya beans that have been imported from the United States and
Argentina in recent years have been genetically modified. And over
half of soybean oil available in China contains transgenic
ingredient.
To
protect consumers' rights to information and choice, the state
promulgated "Regulations on Administration of Agricultural
Transgenic Biological Products" last year. The recent Ministry of
Agriculture's "Regulations on Labeling Agricultural Transgenic
Biological Products" demands all listed transgenic biological
products be labeled.
Among the first listings of agricultural transgenic products are
soybean seed, soya bean, soybean powder, soybean oil, soybean
dregs, corn seed, corn, corn oil, corn powder, rapeseed, rapeseed
dregs, cottonseed, tomato seed, tomato, and tomato sauce.
Consumers purchasing these agricultural products should read the
labels carefully to identify any transgenic ingredient.
(中國青年報 [China
Youth] February 27, 2002 by Zhang Dongcao, translated by Zhang
Tingting for china.org.cn)