§ Mr. PaiceTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list which foods or food190W ingredients produced from genetically modified crops are available in the UK and have been labelled in accordance with the EC Novel Foods and Novel Food Ingredients Regulations. [75191]
§ Mr. Rooker[holding answer8 March 1999]: Genetically modified (GM) tomato paste and foods containing GM soya and GM maize are currently available in the UK.
The EC Novel Foods and Novel Food Ingredients Regulation (258/97) came into force in May 1997.
Foods containing GM soya and maize, which were approved for marketing prior to this, are required to be labelled under EC Regulation 1139/98. The GM tomato paste has been clearly labelled on a voluntary basis by the manufacturer since its launch in February 1996.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress has been made in establishing a de minimis threshold for the presence of genetically modified material in food, below which labelling would not be necessary. [75103]
§ Mr. Rooker[holding answer8 March 1999]: The European Commission has undertaken to come forward with proposals on this issue by the end of March. We will continue to press the European Commission to adhere to this timetable.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what percentage of farm animal feed presently on sale contains genetically modified material. [75107]
§ Mr. Rooker[holding answer8 March 1999]: Farm animal feed made only from UK grown crops does not contain any genetically modified (GM) material, because none of the GM plants granted marketing consents under Council Directive 90/220 have been grown in the UK on a commercial scale. Imported materials, in particular maize, soya and their by-products, will contain a proportion of material derived from GM plants. However, in the absence of crop segregation and specific labelling requirements, it is not possible to determine the precise extent of this.