The Taiwan Association for Food Science and Technology held a conference Friday to discuss genetically modified foods (GM foods).
Inspections by Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration over the course of 2013 found that nearly 10% of supposedly non-GM foods had been mislabeled and contained genetically modified ingredients.
Some consumers have come to prefer non-GM foods over concerns that genetically modified ingredients may cause allergies or even cancer. But cross-pollination and mixing during the harvesting and transport of crops makes it difficult to prevent the contamination of non-GM foods.
An official with Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration said Friday that the issue is how much genetically modified material should be tolerated in foods labeled non-GM. Taiwan currently allows up to 5% genetically modified material in foods with the non-GM label. There had been calls from lawmakers to lower the threshold to 0.9%, the level set by the European Union. But the official said that this would present challenges and bring prices up.