Jordan: Gov't finalising law to regulate sale of genetically modified food

Gov't finalising law to regulate sale of genetically modified food

Environment and health experts from eight countries, including Jordan, are drawing up a framework to increase monitoring over genetically modified materials.

At the opening of the 13th biosafety workshop on Monday, experts and policy makers underscored the importance of reducing or eliminating hazards caused by the transportation and use of genetically modified organisms and their products.

Besides Jordan, representatives from Egypt, Tunisia, Albania, Macedonia, Bangladesh, Turkey and Iran are taking part in the five-day workshop.

Environment Ministry Secretary General Ahmad Qatarneh said the participating countries should come up with laws that regulate, within a legal framework, the import, marketing and sale of genetically modified food.

"Genetically modified organisms and their modern technologies have great effects on health and the environment; therefore, laws that govern their use and marketing should be drafted," Qatarneh said at the opening session.

He noted that biological safety must be included in national policies, while research centres' capabilities in examining genetically modified materials must be enhanced.

Meanwhile, Raed Bani Hani, director of the nature protection department at the Environment Ministry, said the ministry is finalising a new law to regulate the import, marketing and sale of genetically modified food.

"The biological safety draft law has been finalised, and we are looking into incorporating it as a chapter within the amended Environment Protection Law to give it urgency status," Bani Hani told The Jordan Times on the sidelines of the workshop.

He said the legislation will obligate importers to label food items with genetically modified ingredients before they reach the shelves, underscoring that consumers in Jordan buy food items without knowing that some of them are genetically modified.

Preparing the biological safety draft law is part of the biological safety national framework which the Ministry of Environment launched in 2011. The framework is funded by the UN Environment Programme and the Global Environment Facility.

Genetically modified organisms can be defined as organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally.

The technology, often called "modern biotechnology" or "gene technology", allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between non-related species.

Such methods are used to create genetically modified plants, which are then used to grow genetically modified food crops, according to the World Health Organisation website.

There is broad scientific consensus that food on the market derived from genetically modified crops poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food.

However, critics have objected to genetically modified foods on several grounds, including safety issues and ecological and economic concerns, according to web sources. Jordan Times