Food companies claim victory against labelling after Washington State poll results

Some major US food companies declared victory yesterday over an initiative in Washington State that would have required labelling of certain foods containing biotech ingredients, even as those who support labeling held on to hope that hundreds of thousands of uncounted votes might reverse the result.

With 990,000 votes counted, Washington residents appeared to reject mandatory labelling of genetically engineered products, in a 55 per cent : 45 per cent poll outcome.

The Washington secretary of state has not declared a result for the initiative, as around 300,000 mail-in ballots are yet to be counted, however food companies contend that the outstanding ballots would not affect the outcome.

This comes as the second win for major grocery suppliers against state proposals with their three-year plan to try to foil labeling efforts across the country.

Their strategy, according to partly redacted documents filed with the Washington attorney general's office, was to seek a federal ban on mandatory labelling, which would frustrate labelling efforts percolating in some 20 states.

Over 70 per cent of foods retailing in grocery stores contain genetically engineered ingredients.

According to Michele R Simon, a public health lawyer and food blogger who obtained the documents through a public records request and shared them with The New York Times, it was no surprise they would want a federal solution that would pre-empt states from labelling.

The initiative would have seen Washington become the first state to pass a labelling law without any conditions before implementation.

Labelling laws had previously passed in Connecticut and Maine on the condition that the laws would not become effective until at least five states had passed similar laws in total. In the case of Connecticut one of those other states would also need to share its border.

According to commentators, over 20 states would be considering (genetically modified organism) GMO labelling laws in 2014, and many of the same national interests would be expected to put up money to fight and support the laws elsewhere.

Opponents of the measure, which included biotech companies Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer as also major food and beverage corporations such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Nestle, who opposed the labelling initiative, raised $22 million, while those in favour of the labelling campaign raised $8.4 million, including major donations from Dr Bronner's Magic Soap, the Organic Consumers Association and the Center for Food Safety.