By James Kilner
Moscow next week introduces a city-wide label to identify GM-free
foods, a move ecologists hail as ground-breaking but which foreign producers
say is complex and costly.
A handful of individual food producers around the world already use
labels certifying their food is free of genetically modified elements - but
this is the first large-scale political effort to introduce such a system,
Greenpeace says, expecting it to be watched by others as a test-case.

?These labels are important for consumers so they know which companies
keep a tight control on ingredients in their products,? Greenpeace?s GM
researcher in Russia, Natalia Olefirenko, said.

After an official - voluntary - inspection producers will have the
right to carry Moscow?s GM-free label for a year.

The European Union already insists products which contain more than
0.9 percent of GM-enhanced ingredients must say so on the packet, but
environmentalists argue that does not go far enough.

?It?s very important for the rest of the world to watch Moscow,?
Olefirenko said.

Greenpeace estimates around 80 percent of Russian produce contains no
genetically enhanced ingredients, in line with other developing countries,
against only about 20 percent in the EU and richer countries.

But Greenpeace said parts of the EU could follow Moscow?s lead if it
is a success, although the label should remain voluntary.

Foreign food producers say that is just one of the problems the label
brings.

Supermarkets eager to curry favor with Moscow?s government have hinted
they will only stock products carrying the GM-free label - and signals from
the authorities suggest the label will effectively be obligatory, producer
lobby groups say.

?And it?s all extra costs,? said Alexei Popovichev, head of Rusbrand
which represents big Western producers such as Nestle and Kraft. ?It
involves special testing, special packaging and the costs will be passed on
to the consumer.?

Small domestic producers will probably feel the burden of the extra
costs hardest as they will not be able to spread them through economies of
scale, he said.

Western businesses also argue the GM-free label could mislead
customers into buying poorer products because the assertion that foods
contain no GM-ingredients could be misread as a signal that all the
ingredients are of high-quality.

Greenpeace does warn there is a potential flaw in the Moscow GM label,
saying the testing system chosen by Moscow is untried even though it says
over $2 million has already been spent buying equipment for laboratories
owned by a Moscow businessman.


[www.sptimes.ru]