Understanding the Bioengineered Food Label
If you have been grocery shopping recently, you may have noticed a new label appearing on food packages: a green circle with a sun and field symbol accompanied by the words bioengineered or derived from bioengineering. This label is the result of the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard, a federal law that went into full effect on January 1, 2022, requiring food manufacturers to disclose when their products contain bioengineered ingredients.
The term bioengineered food refers to food that contains genetic material that has been modified through certain laboratory techniques and for which the modification could not otherwise be obtained through conventional breeding or found in nature. In simpler terms, bioengineered foods are what most consumers know as genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. The USDA chose the term bioengineered specifically to create a standardized, legally defined term that replaces the patchwork of inconsistent labels that existed previously.
How Bioengineering Works
Bioengineering, also known as genetic engineering, involves the direct manipulation of an organism's DNA in a laboratory. Scientists identify a gene that produces a desirable trait, such as resistance to a specific pest, tolerance to a particular herbicide, or enhanced nutritional content, and then insert that gene into the DNA of a crop plant. The resulting plant carries the new gene in every cell and expresses the trait that the gene encodes.
The most common bioengineered crops in the United States include corn, soybeans, cotton, canola, sugar beets, alfalfa, papaya, potatoes, summer squash, and apples. These crops have been modified for various purposes, including insect resistance, herbicide tolerance, disease resistance, and improved quality characteristics. Corn and soybeans are the most widely planted bioengineered crops, with over 90 percent of all corn and soybeans grown in the United States being bioengineered varieties.
Because corn and soybeans are used as ingredients in a vast number of processed foods, bioengineered ingredients are present in an estimated 70 to 80 percent of packaged foods sold in American grocery stores. Corn-derived ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, and corn oil, along with soybean-derived ingredients like soybean oil, soy lecithin, and soy protein, are found in everything from breakfast cereals and salad dressings to bread and frozen dinners.
The Difference Between Bioengineered and Derived from Bioengineering
The USDA disclosure standard creates two distinct categories of labeling. Foods labeled bioengineered contain detectable bioengineered genetic material in the final product. This means that if you tested the food in a laboratory, you would find DNA that has been modified through genetic engineering techniques. Examples include whole bioengineered foods like papaya, sweet corn, and certain apples, as well as minimally processed products where the genetic material remains intact.
Foods labeled derived from bioengineering are made from bioengineered crops but have been processed to the point where no detectable modified genetic material remains in the final product. Highly refined ingredients like corn syrup, soybean oil, and sugar from bioengineered sugar beets fall into this category. During the refining process, the DNA and proteins are broken down and removed, leaving a product that is chemically identical to its non-bioengineered counterpart.
Safety of Bioengineered Foods
The safety of bioengineered foods has been extensively studied and reviewed by scientific organizations around the world. The World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the National Academy of Sciences, and regulatory agencies in over 70 countries have concluded that currently approved bioengineered foods are safe to eat and are nutritionally equivalent to their non-bioengineered counterparts.
In the United States, bioengineered foods undergo a rigorous review process by three federal agencies: the USDA, the FDA, and the EPA. This review examines the potential for allergenicity, toxicity, nutritional changes, and environmental impact before any bioengineered crop is approved for commercial cultivation and sale. The review process typically takes 7 to 10 years from initial development to market approval.
Critics of bioengineered foods raise concerns about potential long-term health effects, environmental impacts such as the development of herbicide-resistant weeds, and the consolidation of seed ownership among a small number of large corporations. While these are legitimate policy concerns worthy of public debate, the current scientific consensus supports the safety of approved bioengineered foods for human consumption. Consumers who prefer to avoid bioengineered ingredients can look for products labeled USDA Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified, or simply check for the absence of the bioengineered disclosure symbol.
