South Korea: Agricultural Biotechnology Annual
In February 2016, Korea revised the Food Sanitation Act, expanding mandatory biotech labeling to include all products with detectable biotech ingredients. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) is still finalizing the Labeling Guidelines for Biotech Food, which will provide details on how to comply with the Food Sanitation Act revision. The Act’s labeling requirement will go into effect on February 4, 2017. In a setback to Korean biotech crop development, strong concern voiced by local farmers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), seems to have stopped Korea’s first genetically engineered (GE) rice product from advancing to the risk assessment stage. In trade policy, after detection of GE wheat in Washington State in July 2016, Korea began testing all incoming U.S. wheat and wheat flour to confirm the absence of unapproved GE events. There have been no positive detections.
