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Genetic engineering in the supermarket: EU agrees on looser rules

by AI | 05.Dec 2025 | Europe in brief AI

In the supermarket soon no more indication of genetically modified foods? What is changing for fruit, vegetables and consumers’ freedom of choice.

The two seals "Ohne Gentechnik" and "Bio" on a food package. Photo: Sina Schuldt/dpa

Brussels (dpa) – Food altered using modern genetic engineering methods should in future be able to be sold in supermarkets in the EU without special labeling. Negotiators from the EU member states and the European Parliament agreed in Brussels to exempt such breeds in many cases from the previously strict EU genetic engineering rules, as both sides announced on Thursday night. The new regulations still have to be confirmed by the EU Parliament and the EU member states. Normally this is a formality once the institutions’ negotiators have agreed on a compromise.

However, the same safety requirements will continue to apply to such foods as to breeds that have been created, for example, through crossbreeding and selection. In case of doubt, a plant altered by the gene scissors Crispr/Cas cannot be distinguished from a natural breed.

Better fruit and vegetables?

Supporters hope that the changes will lead to fruit and vegetable varieties that are more productive, more resistant to climate change and richer in nutrients. Scientists also expect easier research thanks to less strict regulations.

In other regions of the world there are already more relaxed rules, and representatives of Parliament and EU member states are therefore also counting on better competitiveness for farmers. The Deutscher Bauernverband basically welcomes a relaxation.

Critics wanted mandatory labeling

Among other things, critics demand that consumers should be given the freedom to choose whether or not they want to consume such foods. Organic farming is also to remain free of genetic engineering in the future. However, according to Parliament, it should not be considered a violation if it involves a “technically unavoidable presence” of genetic engineering.

In principle, both small and significantly larger interventions are possible with gene scissors. Stricter rules will continue to apply in the future for more far-reaching interventions in plants – for example, when genes from a different species are introduced into a plant. This is the case, for example, when genes from a bacterium are inserted into a maize plant. (4 December)