On July 29, 2016, President Obama signed into law S.764, the bill that creates the "National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard." As discussed in our previous Update, the bill attempts to head off the state-by-state labeling requirement for genetically modified foods (also referred to as genetically modified organisms, or GMOs) by setting a mandatory uniform national standard for biotechnology labeling of food. Specifically, the bill directs the Secretary of Agriculture to establish regulations within the next two years requiring the form of disclosures on foods to be a text, symbol, or electronic or digital link, with alternative reasonable disclosure options for food contained in small or very small packages. The federal law explicitly preempts similar state laws, including (presumably) the one recently passed in Vermont.
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