GM body debates new rules

By Richard Black BBC science correspondent

The organisation responsible for setting global food safety guidelines is expected to adopt new standards on assessing genetically modified foods at a meeting in Rome.

Anti-GM activists want to see more rigorous testing of GM foods

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, a joint body of the World Health Organisation and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, will also set new guidelines on issues such as food irradiation, maximum levels of pesticides and the cocoa content of chocolate.

Currently, companies who want to market GM products have to prove they are "substantially equivalent" to non-GM varieties.

But what substantially equivalent really means has never been defined.

The draft documents due to be adopted at this Codex meeting attempt a definition.

Many delegates from poorer countries complain they can rarely afford to go to meetings, and say the technical complexity of Codex documents favours nations able to employ a swarm of analysts

Several paragraphs are likely to arouse the anger of the pro-biotech lobby.

These include, in particular, those which say direct testing of GM foods for toxicity may be necessary, and that procedures for assessing the risk of these foods must be open and transparent to the public.

However, anti-GM campaigners would prefer to see substantial equivalence abandoned altogether in favour of a far more rigorous testing system.

'Vote-buying' claims

Codex is supposed to be a representative and democratic body with equal representation from every nation which chooses to attend.

However, many delegates from poorer countries complain they can rarely afford to go to meetings, and say the technical complexity of Codex documents favours nations able to employ a swarm of analysts.

To rectify this, the commission has established a scheme where richer nations sponsor delegates from poorer countries.

But this scheme is also under review this week, as some observers believe it will effectively lead to vote-buying by the West.