The primary objective of the draft Act on the amendment of the Act on food safety and nutrition is to implement the labelling of food as ‘GMO-free’ for food produced according to specific requirements during all stages of production, processing and marketing. Consumers have the right to obtain reliable information on the composition of a product, as well as the manner in which it was produced. The purpose of using ‘GMO-free’ labelling is to allow consumers to see this information, as well as to raise consumer awareness of food products. Thanks to the use of labels confirming that a product is GMO-free, consumers are able to ensure that the desired product does not contain GMOs, and that no ingredients containing GMOs were used in its production. The correct labelling of products with a ‘GMO-free’ label will be subject to supervisory review by the public administration authorities; this will act as a guarantee that the product has been marked with the appropriate symbol and has undergone detailed verification. These inspection procedures will help eliminate any instances of false ‘GMO-free’ labelling.

The draft Act introduces an additional Chapter 6a on the labelling of products with ‘GMO-free’ labels to Section II of the Act of 25 August 2006 on food safety and nutrition. The basic premise of the Act is to regulate the normative requirements concerning the use of the term ‘GMO-free’ on the labelling of food products. The draft Act defines the subjective and objective scope and the conditions that must be met by the manufacturer or the entity placing the product on the market so as to allow the product to be labelled as ‘GMO-free’.