Penalties raised for illegal sale of GMO foods in China

[TellMeBaby]

Penalties raised for illegal sale of GMO foods in China

Chen Yi-chun and Staff Reporter
2015-05-22

A flock of birds fly over rice paddies in Sanya on May 6, 2015. (Photo/Xinhua)

China's food markets have been flooded with genetically modified products, despite the fact that only cotton and papaya are allowed to be genetically modified in the country, reports our Chinese-language sister newspaper Want Daily.

China's Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to implement a new version of the food safety law on Oct. 1, 2015, which will increase the penalties for genetically modified food items not being labeled as such to five to 10 times the food item's price.

Illegal genetically modified rice, potato chips and cooking oil have all been discovered at supermarkets and markets in China. A kindergarten in Shenyang was also reported to be serving food cooked with genetically modified oil to children. Parents threatened to pull their kids out of the school if no satisfactory explanation was provided. A spokesperson for the kindergarten said that the oil was purchased at the supermarket and it was not labeled as genetically modified.

An investigation conducted by China Central Television (CCTV) in 2014 found that three out of five packs of rice being sold in the country were genetically modified. Another inspection in 2013 also found that 25 batches of rice exported from China to Europe were genetically modified.

The management of genetically modified agricultural products is undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture, but no governmental institution handles food safety issues caused by genetically modified food.

The world production of genetically modified food in 2012 was 170 million hectares and China's production was 4 million hectares, putting it 6th in the world. Most of China's genetically modified production consists of cotton.