Traceability issue seen blocking Codex biotech safety principles.(Brief Article)

A controversial proposal to allow regulators to use traceability as a risk management tool for biotech foods is likely to block approval of draft principles for risk analysis when the Codex Ad Hoc Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology meets this month in Yokohama, Japan (see FTR, February, Page 1).

The traceability proposal was placed in square brackets last year at the insistence of the United States and its allies. In Codex parlance, square brackets indicate lack of consensus and a need for further debate.

"It's a shame that we're down to one very contentious issue that stands in the way of adoption," U.S. Delegate Robert Lake told a Feb. 12 …