In an effort to increase transparency on food labeling, the USDA implemented a new national bioengineered food disclosure standard at the beginning of the year. Over the next few years, customers will start to seem more labeling that identifies bioengineered food.
“It seemed as though there was kind of some pushback from industry for labeling. I think, because sometimes when things are labeled, it tends to turn consumers off. But on the other hand, I think that sort of fosters a distrust between the food companies and the consumers, if there's, you perceive there's something in your food and they don't want to tell you," said Robert Ward, an associate professor of nutrition dietetics and food sciences at Utah State University.
More and more, people are using labels to better understand what is in their food. This new standard will help create consistent labeling between states.
“In the food industry, especially now, there is a strong drive towards what they call clean labels," said Ward. "Producers don't want to put ingredients in their foods that have sciency sounding names that tend to turn consumers off. And so there's a lot of interesting ingredients that food companies will use to get around using what has traditionally been food additives, or preservatives in foods."
The mandatory compliance date for this standard is January 1, 2022.
