More than 370 companies in the food industry, including large corporations such as Rewe and dm, are calling on the agriculture ministers of the EU states to make it mandatory to label genetically modified foods.

Representatives of the initiative handed over an open letter in Budapest to the Hungarian Minister of Agriculture, István Nagy, as the Association of Food without Genetic Engineering announced. As part of the regularly rotating EU Council Presidency, Nagy is currently Chairman of the EU Council of Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries. Companies from 16 EU member states reportedly participated in the initiative’s open letter.

Brussels is currently discussing deregulation of EU genetic engineering regulations. The EU Commission proposed this in the summer of 2023. The European Parliament also voted in February of this year for less strict rules on genetically modified foods. In contrast to the EU Commission’s original proposal, however, the Parliament wants all genetically modified products to have to be labeled in supermarkets in the future.

Already second open letter

“Many of our customers are skeptical about genetically modified products,” the initiative’s open letter states. “They want to decide for themselves whether to buy and eat them. They can only do that if the products are clearly labeled.” Kerstin Erbe, dm’s managing director for product management, said in a statement: “Citizens must be able to be as fully informed as possible about what they are consuming.”

Even before the EU Parliament’s vote in February, the corporate initiative had called for the stricter genetic engineering labeling to be retained. Before looser rules can be finally adopted, however, the EU states and the European Parliament must find a compromise. At the moment, however, the agriculture ministers of the EU states are still wrangling over a common position. No negotiations with the Parliament can begin until they have reached an agreement.

If deregulation were to occur at some point, it would be easier to create new breeds using modern genetic engineering techniques. Proponents of the techniques believe that this would enable the development of more robust plants with more nutrients. Some also hope that this would mean that fewer pesticides would have to be used.