Inspectors in Shanghai began canvassing super-market shelves yesterday to ensure genetically modified foods are properly labeled as required by regulations that went into effect in March 2002.

Any products that aren't properly labeled will be confiscated and producers will be fined between 10,000 yuan (US$1,205) and 50,000 yuan, officials announced.

Officials from the Shanghai Agriculture and Forestry Bureau will focus their inspections on edible oils, because most of the edible oil products on the market are believed to be processed with imported genetically modified soybeans.

"We will adopt two methods - tracing the raw materials or testing the sample - to see whether the product contains transgenic substances," said Wang Xuebei, director of the bureau's agricultural science division.

In March 2002, the Ministry of Agriculture published regulations requiring all products containing GM soybeans, corn, rape seed, cotton or tomatoes to be clearly labeled before they are allowed on store shelves.

"This aims to protect the consumers' right to learn the truth," said Yin Ou, a spokes-man for the bureau. The spokesman admits that "whether GM foods are harmful to health is still unclear at present."

At least one manufacturer has complained that its rivals aren't following the rules.

"We hope the city's task force can strengthen their supervision to let enterprises do business under the same conditions. Otherwise, it's unfair for enterprises like us which have attached the labels," said Cai Tao, a salesman with Shanghai Nisshin Oil & Fats Ltd.

Nisshin became the first company to attach the GM labels to its products this April - a full year after the regulation went into effect. Other companies have put off using the labels as they fear a drop in sales.

Sales of Nisshin's oil products have fallen 10 percent year-on-year since it began using the labels, according to media reports. Though it declined to attribute the entire sales decrease to the labels, Nisshin still thinks it has suffered from following the regulations.

By the end of last month, 10 edible oil processing and import enterprises had applied for GM-food labels from the bureau and 54 labels have been approved. But many products on store shelves still don't have labels.

"Many companies applied for the label as a precaution. But they don't put them on the package," Wang said.

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