Activist groups yesterday urged an FDA advisory committee to recommend mandatory labels for Aquabounty’s genetically-engineered Atlantic salmon, to distinguish it from conventional salmon. Some critics of the fish worry that it will cause more allergies in consumers, but initial studies of Aquabounty’s salmon have yet to show a difference between their salmon and conventional salmon. Government authorities, particularly the FDA, have made it clear that if a GM food product is essentially the same as unmodified foods, then it does not require labeling. Genetic modification by itself does not mean a food must be labeled.
ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan doesn’t see the need for labeling the fish, sarcastically asking, “Why don’t we label salmon that was harvested on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday? How would that contribute to a consumer’s decision to purchase it? Labeling is supposed to provide useful consumer information, but GM food is no different from conventional food, so it is unnecessary.”
“Labeling a modified food that is actually the same as unmodified foods connotes misleading information to consumers,” argues ACSH's Jeff Stier. “This is comparable to the use of hormones to enable cows to produce more milk. There are no hormones in the milk, so there is no need to label the milk as coming from hormone-treated cows.”
