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GMO-free pet food

Thefree-from'-' without 'this or that ingredient - is one of the hottest claims in labels and advertising of the petfood. In line with the current trends in food marketing, in the broader context of the 'natural' food for humans and their two or four-legged friends. But what does it mean?

An appreciable competitive advantage it is undoubtedly associated with this type of promotional messages. Thanks also to the fact that today pets, like their bipedal friends, are often obese or overweight and therefore the search for foods at least apparently more suitable is widespread.

The absence of certain ingredients and substances, in food as in pet foods, it is generally associated by the general public with benefits - real or presumed - for nutrition and health.

These indications, moreover, they must be transparent - that is, truthful and demonstrable, to the authorities who request them - as well as clear, not misleading. There are also prohibitions on:

  • attribute to the product effects and properties that it does not possess (e.g. health benefits),
  • boast characteristics that are common to the category to which it belongs, therefore not distinctive of the individual asset. (1)

The indication 'GMO-free', in particular, is one of the free-from most popular. In fact, European consumers maintain large reservations on safety of genetically modified foods and try to avoid them whenever possible. (2)

The legitimacy of the claim 'GMO-freehowever, it must be checked carefully. First of all, it should be emphasized that feeds with ingredients that derive from GMOs or contain them must have a specific indication on the label. (3). Pet food marked as'senza GMO'must therefore have a corresponding' potentially GMO 'matrix, with respect to which to distinguish itself.

As for the vegetable ingredients, we can admit the claim 'GMO-free'where the petfood contains soy, corn, non-GMO rapeseed (against the effective spread of GMOs on the related crops), but not in the case of wheat, rice, sunflower (given that in Europe the use of derivatives from wheat, paddy and sunflower genetically modified).

Ingredients of animal origin designated as non-GMO, in turn, must come from farms where the use of GM feed has been excluded. Whether it is meat and related by-products, whether it is fish or farmed shrimp.

Tolerance on the trail (<0,9%) of GMOs in ingredients not designated as such, it should be noted, can only be applied when the responsible operator is able to demonstrate that he has taken all appropriate measures to avoid contamination.

The accidental presence and / or technically unavoidable of traces of GMOs can therefore be tolerated - within the quantity limit indicated - provided that the operator demonstrates, for example, that he has purchased IP raw materials (Identity Preserved), as the Italian soy.

Dario Dongo and Paola Cane

Footnotes

(1) The criteria of fairness of information practices are in hindsight similar to those defined for information on food products (EU regulation 1169/11, article 7)

(2) It will be much more difficult to distinguish the so-called 'new GMOs', as the EU Court of Justice could remove them from the rules of authorization, traceability and specific information. See the article https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/salute/nuovi-ogm-nessuna-regola

(3) See reg. CE 1829/03, 1830/03

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Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.

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