Labelling

Background

Labelling in Canada

Lucy Sharratt of CBAN speaks at a press conference for labelling organized by MP Yves Perron. Parliament Hill, Dec 1, 2025.

There is no mandatory labelling in Canada. In 2001, a bill for mandatory labelling was defeated (126 to 91) in the House of Commons after an intense grassroots campaign. 

December 2, 2025: E-petition 6768 was presented in the House of Commons by Yves Perron, Member of Parliament for Berthier—Maskinongé and the Bloc Quebecois agriculture critic. The petition had 4152 signatures and was initiated by CBAN in partnership with Kids Right to Know. Click here to view the press conference from December 1.

December 21, 2018 – Press Release: Groups Urge Canada to Reject New U.S. Example of GM Food Labelling

May 2017: Private Member’s Bill C-291 for mandatory labelling was voted down on May 17, 2017 (67 to 216). Press Release, May 17, 2017: Groups Call on Grocery Stores to Reject GM Fish and Produce as Parliament Votes Down Mandatory Labelling for GM Foods

• All polls since 1994 found that over 80% of Canadians want mandatory labelling.
• Watch The National report on the failure of the Private Members Bill to label GM foods in Canada, October 17, 2001.
• Read CBAN’s GMO Inquiry report “Are GM Foods Better for Consumers?” to read about why we don’t have mandatory labelling in Canada.
• You can also see the archives of federal government public relations materials.

The Government’s only response to the overwhelming public call for mandatory labelling, aside from consumer “education” initiatives, was to strike a committee to create a national standard for voluntary labelling. In September 1999, the Canadian General Standards Board formed a Committee on Voluntary Labelling of Foods Obtained Through Biotechnology (which promptly changed its name to the Committee on Voluntary Labelling for Foods Obtained or Not Obtained through Genetic Engineering and then to switched terminology again to Genetic Modification). The committee was an initiative of the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors – a national organization representing about 80% of grocery and supermarket companies in Canada.

2008: Private Members Bill defeated: A Private Members Bill to label genetically engineered foods (C-517) introduced by Gilles-A. Perron of Bloc Québécois was defeated in the House of Commons in April 2008.

• Click here to listen to the April 2008 House of Commons debate courtesy of Deconstructing Dinner.
• Click here to read the transcript of the debate
• Press Release – April 3 2008: Bill to Label Genetically Engineered Foods: Will MPs vote for Monsanto or Canadians?
• TV report on the defeat of the bill for mandatory labelling in the House of Commons, The National, October 17, 2001.

Labelling in the US

US Disclosure Law for “Bioengineered” Foods

November 2025: A U.S. court has ruled that genetically modified processed food ingredients must be labelled for US consumers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had exempted “highly refined” or ultra-processed GM foods, such as corn and soy oils, from its 2016 mandatory disclosure rule for “bioengineered” foods but this loophole is now closed. The case was filed in 2020 by the Center for Food Safety representing a plaintiff coalition of nonprofits and organic retailers.

The court ruling is highly significant for the North American food market:

• GM ultra-processed foods, such as cooking oils from GM corn, canola, and soy, which make up the majority of all GM foods in North America, must now be labelled in the U.S. Many of these U.S. products are also exported to Canada, and many Canadian products are sold in the U.S.
• It is now also unlawful to use inaccessible digital QR codes on US food packages instead of clear labels.

Unfortunately, the ruling allows the USDA to continue to use the new term “bioengineered” for product labelling as opposed to the well-known terms “genetically engineered” or “genetically modified.” The USDA definition of “bioengineered” does not cover the use gene editing techniques so there will be no mandatory labelling of future GM gene-edited foods, such as those produced with CRISPR, under the current rule.

January 2022: The U.S. government “National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard” is now in effect and means that some, but not all, genetically engineered foods, will carry a label.

December 21, 2018 – Press Release: Groups Urge Canada to Reject New U.S. Example of GM Food Labelling Canadian public interest and environmental groups are expressing concerns about inadequate and confusing new US government rules to label some genetically modified (GM, genetically engineered) foods, and are calling on the federal government to reject this new US example and adopt full, transparent mandatory labelling instead.

In 2016, the US government passed a mandatory disclosure law for GM foods, called the “National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard.” This law preempted state GM food labeling laws, such as Vermont’s law to label “genetically engineered” foods that was already being implemented. The legislation was described by the US food movement as “non-labelling GMO labelling”

June 29, 2018: Click here to read CBAN’s comments to the USDA.

The U.S. “disclosure” standard has many critical gaps and problems and should not be used as a model for labelling in Canada. The U.S. standard:

• Uses the unfamiliar and poorly defined term “bioengineered” instead of the commonly used and understood term “genetically modified” (“GM”) or “genetically engineered” (“GE”);
• Does not label foods if the modified genetic material cannot be detected, therefore excluding highly processed foods such as sugar from GM sugar beet and oils from GM corn and GM canola;
• Does not require on-package text labels but instead allows companies to opt for an electronic or digital link accompanied by a telephone number “for more food information”;
• Provides the option of using a specific graphic symbol that incorporates the word “bioengineered”, with an image that is not neutral but is suggestive of a bucolic country scene;
• Has a high threshold to require disclosure only when there is more than 5% GM content versus the 0.9% threshold used in the European Union, for example.

July 29 2016: President Obama passed disclosure law. The bill will be not be implemented for at least two years while negotiations proceed.

In July 2016, Vermont had already implemented their law to require packages of processed food to declare as “partially produced with genetic engineering”; “may be produced with genetic engineering”; or “produced with genetic engineering” (individual ingredients will not be identified as GM on packages). Major food manufacturers were beginning to label some foods to comply with the Vermont law:

• Mars said: “In 2014, the state of Vermont passed a mandatory genetically modified (GM) ingredient labeling law that requires most human food products containing GM ingredients to include on-pack labeling as of July 2016. To comply with that law, Mars is introducing clear, on-pack labeling on our products that contain GM ingredients nationwide….We firmly believe GM ingredients are safe.” (March 22, 2016)
• General Mills added a search tool on their website to provide GMO ingredient information for hundreds of U.S. products.(March 20, 2016)

In 2013, an initiative to label GE food in Washington state failed in a popular vote 51/49, after the food industry spent over $20 million to defeat it. In 2012, Californians narrowly voted against labelling in a California Ballot Initiative (Proposition 37) after corporations spent a total of $46 million in advertising.

Labelling Around the World

64 countries around the world have some type of mandatory labeling GM food law including the European Union, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Russia and China.

• Click here for the interactive map of labelling laws across the world provided by the Center for Food Safety US
• Click here for the list of countries that have mandatory labelling laws (please see the above link for details – not all the laws are comprehensive)

Global Right to Label GM Foods Secured

After a twenty year struggle inside the global food safety body Codex, the right of countries to enact GM food labelling without threat of trade challenge was established in 2011. Thanks to your action and years of work with many groups around the world, there are international guidelines on GM labeling.

National labelling of GM foods is now protected from trade challenge. More than 100 countries agreed on long overdue guidance on the labeling of genetically modified (GM) food.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission of the UN which is made up of the representatives of government food safety regulatory agencies from around the world, worked for two decades to come up with consensus guidance on GM food labelling. In 2011, in a striking reversal of their previous position during the annual Codex summit in Geneva, the US delegation dropped its opposition to the GM labelling guidance document, allowing it to move forward and become an official Codex text. The new Codex agreement means that any country wishing to adopt GM food labelling will no longer face the threat of a legal challenge from the World Trade Organization (WTO).

National measures based on Codex guidance or standards cannot be challenged as a barrier to trade. This will have immediate implications for consumers. Click here for analysis from Consumers International.

The United Nation’s Codex guidelines on GM food labelling are voluntary and so the guidelines themselves do not compel countries to label (so this will not result in labelling in Canada for example).

• April 30, 2010 – Press Release: Canada to oppose the right of countries to label GM foods? Regroupement québécois contre les OGM (RQcOGM), Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN)
• CBAN’s letter to the Minister of Health
• May 5, 2009 – Press Release: Canada Must Support UN Negotiations on Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods: Codex meeting in Calgary could suspend work on GM food labeling. Update: Despite US and Canadian objections, the Codex meeting agreed to continue their work to develop guidelines for labeling GM foods.

Codex Alimentarius means “food code”. The Codex Alimentarius Comission is a UN process established in the 1960s by the United Nationals Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization. Through Codex, national governments meet to negotiate and harmonize guidelines for food safety assessments and other standards including food labeling. Codex guidelines are voluntary and non-binding but are an international reference point for countries. Codex standards are now the benchmarks against which national food measures and regulations are evaluated in the event of trade disputes brought forward by countries through the World Trade Organization. Consumer organizations are able to register to participate in Codex meetings and can also submit written comments for consideration.

More Information

• Labelling Genetically Modified Foods. CBAN Briefing. May 2017.
• Responses to arguments against GM food labelling.
• Click here for the interactive map of labelling laws across the world provided by the Center for Food Safety in the US.
• Click here for the list of countries that have mandatory labelling laws – please see the above link for details (not all the laws are comprehensive)
• A list of labelling polls in Canada since 1994.
• October 2014: The cost of GM labelling to consumers should be less than a penny a day – $2.30 per person annually, says research commissioned by the US Consumers Union.