Brazil – IDEC files appeal against withdrawal of labeling on foods with a percentage less than or equal to 1% of GMOs

The Institute for Consumer Protection (IDEC in Portuguese) filed an appeal before the Supreme Federal Court against the decision that establishes that the identification on the label of foods with a percentage less than or equal to 1% of GMO in their composition is unnecessary, adopted by the 2nd Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), in October of last year.

The institute maintains that the decision is contrary to Brazilian legal principles and violates fundamental rights, as well as constitutional norms of consumer protection and human dignity, essential to the Brazilian economic and social order. “The Federal Constitution enshrines the rights to good citizenship, human dignity, pluralism, self-determination, information, healthy food, food security and sovereignty, health, equality, culture and tradition and a balanced environment, rights that are not negotiable and whose decisions are contrary,” the document states.

The appeal requests that the STF reinstate the decisions taken by the TRF-1 (Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region) that prohibited the Federal Union from allowing or authorizing the marketing of any food containing GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), without express reference to that information on its labeling, regardless of the percentage, and that forced it to take measures to inspect and withdraw those products that do not comply with the decision.