The United States Department of Agriculture will be releasing the rules for national biotech labeling soon. Undersecretary of Marketing and Regulatory Programs Greg Ibach says it falls under his division of USDA and they are close to finalizing the draft rules for the Bioengineered Food Disclosure Act.
Ibach says once the interagency approvals are received they will release the biotech labeling requirements to the public for a 30-day comment period.
It is uncertain if the rules will cover marketing gimmicks and prohibit companies from labeling food products non-GMO if they never were to begin with. The rules must be implemented by July 1 of 2018.
Ibach says USDA is also close to releasing Part 340, which is a revision on the regulations governing biotech crops.
The revised rule was released at the end of the Obama Administration and USDA delayed action to make sure all the agencies were in synch on biotechnology before implementation.
