USDA's FSIS Issues Non-GMO Labeling Guidance for Meat, Poultry

Approvals can now begin on what are termed "negative claims" -- food labels that indicate the meat, poultry or egg products inside do not contain bioengineered ingredients (GMO) or that the livestock used to create the product did not eat bioengineered feed.

A notice, issued by USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to provide guidance on such "non-GMO" labels, is the result of recent legislation requiring USDA to develop and implement a mandatory national bioengineered food disclosure standard within two years. That legislation also addresses "negative" claims, FSIS noted, providing that "a food may not be considered to be 'not bioengineered' or 'non-GMO,' or any other similar claim describing the absence of bioengineering in the food solely because the food is not required to bear a disclosure that the food is bioengineered under this subtitle." The guidance will be published in the Federal Register for public comment.

Given that legislation, FSIS said it will "allow use of the terms 'genetically modified organism' or 'GMO' in negative claims provided that the label or labeling is otherwise truthful and not misleading."

The agency gave several examples of approved labels, such as chicken "Raised on a diet containing no genetically engineered ingredients" of "Derived from beef fed no GMO feed."

Under prior policy, FSIS had not allowed the use of the terms "genetically modified organism" or "GMO" in negative claims, unless that claim was part of a third party organization certification (such as the "Non-GMO Project)" which contained the claim of not having GMOs.

The recently enacted legislation on GMO labeling has prompted FSIS to reconsider its position, the agency said.

However, FSIS it will retain the following requirements:

"Because FSIS does not have the ability to independently verify negative claims for ingredients or feed, FSIS has required establishments that make these claims to comply with standards established by a third-party certifying organization. FSIS currently requires that the third-party certifying organization's standards be publicly available on a website and the label or labeling disclose the website address of the third-party certifying organization. FSIS currently requires that the establishment demonstrate that its claims of third-party certification are truthful and not misleading. FSIS will retain these requirements in this guidance."