Singapore to ensure safety of GM food

SINGAPORE is gearing up to handle a possible onslaught of genetically modified food in the next five years.

A laboratory has been set up by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) to test such food items and make sure they do not pose any health risks for people here.

Six AVA staff have also been trained to test for food that has been altered, said the local food watchdog's chief executive officer, Dr Ngiam Tong Tau.

He was speaking to The Straits Times after opening the International Conference on Genetically Modified Foods - Prospects, Challenges and Safety at the Mandarin Hotel yesterday.

The laboratory, which was set up last year at its public health laboratory in Jurong, will be relocated to its new Lim Chu Kang public health centre soon.

Genetically-modified (GM) food is from plants or animals that have been injected with special genes to give them certain properties.

In 2001, more than 52 million ha of such soya bean, corn, cotton and canola oil were grown in 13 countries.

About half of the soya and a third of the corn sold here is genetically modified, but they have all been tested stringently before hitting the shelves.

Dr Ngiam said that so far, the AVA has not rejected any GM product, but caution is still needed for future ones.

He said: 'If they came in through normal procedure, then they would be safe. But sometimes food producers may not tell you the food being sold has been modified genetically.'

On whether Singapore would label these foods, Dr Ngiam reiterated the Government's stand that it would wait for the Codex Alimentarius' decision.

This is an international committee sanctioned by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The group is expected to come up with biosafety protocols for the world by the middle of the year, but a decision on labelling will be taken later.

If it decides that labelling is not needed, Singapore, because of its small size, would find it difficult to insist that sellers and importers do so.

Labelling on its own would cost the Republic millions and food would cost more.

http://www.ecologyasia.com/news-archives/2003/feb-03/straitstimes_030228_1.htm

Bao Yun