SINGAPORE The city-state of Singapore will decide whether to label genetically modified (GM) food after an international body makes its recommendations in a year's time, a report said Saturday.
"The labeling issue is still under serious consideration," Ngiam Tong Tau, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority's chief executive officer, told a forum on the controversial issue.
Commissioner of public health Daniel Wang told the Straits Times that Singapore's stance on labeling would follow an international standard sanctioned by the World Health Organization and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
"Right now, Singapore looks to the world authorities on food for their assessments on safety and runs through the protocols that they carry out to assess how safe our food is," he was quoted as saying.
International experts told the forum labeling of food products that have foreign genes added would probably become a reality in most countries within five years.
"Ultimately, it's unlikely that we'll be able to ban GM food," said Trevor Thorpe, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary in Canada. "So there will probably be labels stating whether the ingredients have been genetically modified." (DPA)