Legal Control Over The Safety Of Genetically Modified Foods

Biotechnology, information technology, nanotechnology and material technology are listed as four most influential technologies that influence national and personal life and at core of the knowledge economy in the 21th century. Genetically modified food (hereinafter referred to as "GMF" ) is the inevitable product as the result of human productivity progress, which has fundamental transformed our concept of food. Mankind pins on transgene technology heavy hopes that it will better human life quality and make mankind free of poverty and hunger.Every coin has two sides. GMF brings us hope but at the same time also risks on human health and bio-environment. In recent years, the issue of GMF safety has become one of the hottest debating topics in the world. Many countries have enacted relevant laws and regulations addressing the safety problems posed by GMF. However, China's pertinent law is backward which has hindered the development of the transgene technology. So the legal control of GMF shall be a paramount research topic. This paper attempts to make preliminary research on this issue and tries to put forward constructive suggestions.Besides the foreword and the postscript, the paper divides into four chapters.The first chapter tells about the transgene technology and GMF.Firstly it makes brief introduction about the concepts and types of genes and transgene technology, and then based on that, addresses the safety problem of GMF, namely, the edible safety and the environmental safety.The second chapter tells about the legislation practice of other countries and makes relevant analysis thereof.It begins with introduction of the legislation practice in the international organizations, the North America and the European countries and then summarizes their successful experiences. Afterwards it makes key analysis on some important principles different from those about common foods, including risk preventing principle, proper control principle, safety appraisal principle and full-process control principle.The third chapter discusses the legislative reality of our country and makes analysis thereof.At the beginning, it looks into the grand significance of legislation on the safety of GMF and then comes to China' s legislative reality in this regard and finally analyzes some drawbacks in the present legislation such as incomplete coverage, low-level legislation, irrational administration system and the singular regulative mechanism.The forth chapter puts forward some useful advice concerning China' s legislation on the safety of GMF.Based on all the above, it initially projects on the legislative outline of GMF safety, and then advises on how to perfecting some basic systems on the safety of GMF such as the public participating mechanism, safety identifying system and the remedial systems.