i202 Fall 2010 School of Information, UC Berkeley

GMO salmon is under review for FDA approval.  This news has given rise to the classic debates over food labeling and the system for governing it.

The FDA makes the rules for the tags our food labels should contain.  Ingredients on packaged goods contain a list of ingredients which are analogous to tags.  The current laws requires the tags to be exhaustive in terms of ingredients.  One question that is always debated as to what level of granularity the ingredients need to be listed.  i.e. If chocolate is an ingredient in a item, do the components of the chocolate also need be listed)

Currently, there is debate as to what attributes (tags) are appropriate to be displayed on the labels of our food as they pertain to genetically modified ingredients (GMOs.)  The big question is do GMO ingredients need to be tagged?  Will such tags exist at the package good level or the ingredient level?  Will the presence of particular GMO ingredients need to be specifically tagged or if a food item has any GMO will it require a more global GMO tag?  

The article : Clarified: How is genetically modified food labeled? explains the issue in further detail.