Japan finalizes voluntary non-GMO food labeling law

By Bruce Abbe, SSGA strategic advisor for trade and transportation

While in Japan for the U.S. Soy Buyers Outlook Conference, Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) representatives met with officials from the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service/Office of Agriculture Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and the Deputy Director of the Food Labeling Division of the Japanese government’s Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA). The mission: to get a better understanding of the newly revised Japan genetic engineered (GE) food labeling law that gained final approval in March 2019.

The new labeling regime will require zero GMO presence for any food product to be labeled “Non-GMO” once it goes into effect by April 2023. However, there is a new, voluntary identity-preserved (IP) category for labeling that is to be established under the revised system.

SSGA members who export food soybeans or grains to Japan will want to follow implementation steps for the new system, and maintain communication with their Japanese food manufacturing customers who will be on point for complying with the new system.

Here are key provisions and changes:

• Eight crops – soybeans, corn, potatoes, canola, cottonseed, alfalfa, sugar beets, papaya and 33 processed food items (see JA 71210) continue to be subject to mandatory labeling, as before. Products containing five percent or more GE components must be labeled for having GE content.
• Currently and in the past, products containing less than five percent GE components (which are unintentionally co-mingled with the product) can be labeled as “non-GE.” As a common industry practice, most U.S. food soybean exports to Japan have needed to meet the European standard of 99.1 percent non-GE – i.e., no more than 0.9 percent of unintended GMO content due to adventitious presence. Under the new law, to be labeled as “non-GE” or “Non-GMO” the product must have zero GMO presence.
• To minimize the risk of trade disruption, a new labeling language category for “Identity-preserved products” (identity-preserved to avoid commingling of any GMO content) containing no more than five percent GE components is to be established.
• Labeling of “Identity-preserved” and “Non-GE” products is voluntary. Companies may choose to not include the label language, unless the products have above five percent GE, when it must be labeled as such.
• The onus and chief responsibility for compliance will be on the food manufacturers. It will not be directly on food soy, corn and ingredient export suppliers to the food manufacturers.
• However, to meet requirements to use the new “IP” label, it is assumed that the food manufacturer importers will have identity-preserved handling procedure requirements and their own testing requirements that their suppliers will need to meet.
• The Japan Consumers Affairs Agency (CAA) is in the process of drafting the testing methodology, which will be critical for U.S. exporters to be aware of. The CAA Deputy Director of Labeling Division advised SSGA that the public will have a chance to comment on the testing methodology after it is released for comments in the near future.
• The labeling will consist of “text” language in Japanese on the product label, much like the normal mandate ingredient content labeling. It will not be a “logo” type design label.
• CAA issued a guidance document last April that advised that other language on products labels that might have multiple interpretations that could confuse consumers should be avoided (such as “Almost free of GE corn”).
• The new rules did not stipulate that imported, processed products that have other non-GMO identification marketing labels (such as the “Non-GMO Project” label) can’t be used. However, the product must still contain the required text language in Japanese on the product. Food manufacturers, one assumes, will need to make a determination that whatever they put on the product will not confuse consumers in the regulators’ eyes.
• The USDA Foreign Agriculture Service issues a Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) Report on the Japanese labeling revisions. Go here to view that report.