In adopting the report by Mrs Dagmar ROTH-BEHRENDT (PSE, D), Parliament approved the joint
text for a Regulation concerning novel foods and novel food ingredients.
The compromise between the Council and Parliament within the Conciliation Committee gave rise
to the following results:
- All foodstuff labelling should inform the consumer of the characteristics or properties which, on
the basis of a scientific evaluation, render a novel food or novel food ingredient different from an
existing product. The label should also indicate the presence of genetically modified organisms;
- exceptionally, Parliament has made a concession to the Council over supplies in bulk. This means
that labelling of foodstuffs or food ingredients provided to the final consumer which may contain
both genetically modified products and conventionally produced products should only indicate that
such genetically modified organisms may be present.
In exchange, the Council agreed to grant suppliers the right to inform the consumer that a specific
foodstuff or food ingredient is not a new food and was not produced by means of the specific new-food techniques.
- Parliament prevailed upon the Council to withdraw from its common position a provision to
exclude from the scope of the Regulation genetic modifications limited to the agricultural
characteristics of a product, e.g. where they improve a plant's resistance to rain, but where the
resultant food product is not affected.
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