Ammon News - by Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN (The Jordan Times) — The Ministry of Environment is finalising a new law which will regulate the import, marketing and sale of genetically modified food to consumers, a government official said on Monday.

Raed Bani Hani, director of the Nature Protection Department at the Environment Ministry, said consumers in Jordan buy food items without knowing that some of them are genetically modified.

“Every person has the right to know what kind of ingredients and materials their food contains. Consumers must have the option to either buy genetically modified food or look for other alternatives,” Bani Hani told The Jordan Times.

He made the remarks on the sidelines of a workshop organised by the Ministry of Health to discuss the biological safety draft law, which is expected to be approved and go into force before the end of this year.

“The law will obligate importers to label food items with genetically modified ingredients before they reach the shelves,” Bani Hani underscored.

During the three-day workshop, participants are studying the bill to submit their opinions and notes before the final draft is referred to the Legislation and Opinion Bureau for amendments and to the Lower House for approval.

Bani Hani said the law also seeks to increase monitoring over genetically modified materials, include biological safety in national policies and enhance research centres’ capabilities in examining genetically modified materials.

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 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.