STRICT SOKOR CONTROLS STAY AS PUBLIC REMAINS HOSTILE TO GMOs

Food and beverage firms have been warned that South Korea is expected to further tighten its governance on genetically modified (GM) foods despite recent policy moves indicating that officials were adopting a less strict approach.

Public sentiment in South Korea in general trends against GMO foods, with a previous survey by research firm Korea Biosafety Clearing House (KBCH) showing that over 83% of national consumers want stricter regulations to be imposed on GMO handling, storage, distribution and labeling, Pearly Neo reported for the trade journal FoodNavigator-Asia.

The Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) appears to have recently been adjusting GMO standards to be less stringent – such as its recent modification allowing food products with only trace amounts of GM ingredients to make ‘non-GMO’ label claims to align with international standards.

MFDS also recently announced that it would be requiring food safety reviews for GMO foods at the agricultural product/ingredient level but not necessarily the final processed food product which appears to be another small concession – but experts have said that in the long run, it is likely that overall, GMO control is only going to get stricter.

“I definitely do not see the trend in South Korea towards the loosening of GMO regulations overall, largely as South Koreans are becoming increasingly health-conscious,” South Korean business consultancy Founder and CEO Eyal Victor Mamou told FoodNavigator-Asia.

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