Trying to pre-empt mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods, foodmakers and one of the largest U.S. grocery chains launched the SmartLabel campaign that will allow customers to learn details about products by scanning bar and QR codes or searching the Internet. The technology will include information by the end of 2017 on whether 20,000 food items contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs), said the trade group Grocery Manufacturers Association. The trade group opposes mandatory GMO labeling at the state or national level.
While GMA says a survey showed 75 percent of grocery shoppers would be likely to use SmartLabel, five consumer and environmental groups said their survey, conducted at nearly the same time, found a 9-to-1 preference for a GMO label on food packages over using a smartphone to scan a bar code. “Just 17 percent say they have ever scanned a bar code to get information and only 16 percent say they have ever scanned a QR code,” said the groups. The GMA survey questioned 902 people who were the primary grocery shopper in their household. The labeling survey by the consumer and environmental groups contacted 800 likely general election voters.
The food industry is pressing Congress to act this year to pre-empt state labeling laws and to keep labeling voluntary on federal level. The first-in-the-nation labeling law is to take effect July 1 in Vermont. Consumer groups rallied on Wednesday for passage of a GMO labeling law in New York State. Connecticut and Maine have labeling laws that will take effect if enough neighbors also require GMO food labels.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has suggested that bar codes would be an avenue for shoppers to learn if foods contain GMOs and resolve the debate over labeling.
The food industry said SmartLabel is a “transformative” approach with more than 30 of the largest food, beverage and consumer products companies on board with the technology, including Tyson Foods, Procter & Gamble, Hormel, Campbell Soup, Kellogg, General Mills and Clorox. Ahold, which operates 770 supermarkets, including Stop & Shop and Giant Foods, also is participating. “A number of retailers have said they can help shoppers without smartphones via their customer service desk in stores,” said GMA.
JP Bilbrey, chief executive of Nestle and president of the GMA board, said, “SmartLabel creates a way for consumers to get unprecedented access to information about what is in their food.” Nestle began using QR -Quick Response — digital labels on its products in early 2013 “to give people instant access to information about the nutritional profile and environmental and social impacts of its products.”
Andrew Kimbrell of the anti-GMO group Center for Food Safety said QR codes “are a completely unacceptable substitute for clear, concisely worded on-package labeling.” The technology puts the poor, elderly, rural and minority-group populations at a disadvantage because of the expense of using the technology, he said.
Lisa Archer of Friends of the Earth said the QR technology “threatens privacy” because companies could surreptitiously collect information about shoppers when they seek information about a product. FDA’s decision not to require labels on genetically engineered salmon “makes it all the more urgent that Congress require mandatory, universally accessible GMO labeling that any consumer can read on the package,” she said.
At the same time it approved the GMO salmon, FDA issued guidelines for voluntary GMO labeling of plant-based foods, and requested public comments on voluntary labeling of GMO salmon.