Pakistan’s federal government has decided to direct the manufacturers of the genetically modified foods to put labels on all of their products.

This step has been taken to save the consumers from the malpractices and market manipulations by the food industry. This will also help the consumers to decide whether they should us GM foods or not.

Currently, the government is considering different viable options to regulate this sector. A concept paper entitled as “Genetically Modified Organisms and Food Labelling’ is a centre of all the deliberations.

It is hard to decide for the policy makers whether to make labelling mandatory or let it be optional—the first option will increase the production cost of the GM foods manifold.

It is hoped that the government will soon come up with a feasible policy to put the GM foods sector under the ambit of hygiene and health laws.

At the international level, the labelling laws for GM food vary greatly. Some countries have made it compulsory while some take it as a volunteer act. There are some states which do not even bother about it.

According to doctors and nutritionists, labelling must be mandatory as it is directly linked to the health of the consumers. However, the GM food producers are not ready to accept it.

The government does not seem to be sparing this sector at any cost as some issues of malpractice have erupted recently. Thus, the GM foods labelling is likely to become mandatory within the coming few weeks.