In July, the European Community ruled that foods made with genetically engineered soybeans or corn must be labeled. Some food distributors are not waiting for the regulators. The Seikatsu Club Consumers Cooperative recently banned the sale of unlabeled DNA-altered foods to its 240,000 members. Another co-op, whose reach extends to nearly 20 million Japanese consumers, is developing its own guidelines. Malaysia's Meenakshi Raman, legal adviser to the Consumers' Association of Penang, thinks there should be a moratorium on any new genetically produced foods until an international protocol, laying out common rules for testing and labeling, has been put in place.
Experts acknowledge that there are some causes for concern.
Allergies could result if a gene from an allergenic food such as peanuts is transplanted into a non- allergenic one. Scientists in America ran into allergy problems when they tried to create a new protein by splicing a gene from a brazil nut into a soybean plant. But biofood producers and the people who regulate them maintain that these are minor bumps on the road to producing perfect food. What is really behind resistance to biologically altered food products is the fear of the unknown. Researchers hope this will lessen as more people learn more about biotech.