Consumer rights and environmental groups have welcomed the rules, officially adopted last July, which require food and animal feed to be labelled if they contain at least 0.9 percent of GM ingredients.

Producers and buyers must also store all data about the origin, composition and sale of GM products for a five-year period, which Brussels describes as the toughest GM food regulations anywhere in the world.

Environmentalists have welcomed the measures as a chance for consumers to express their opposition to GM foods.

"Although imperfect, the laws will enable people to reject this experiment (with GM foods) once and for all," according to Geert Ritsema, of the Friends of the Earth pressure group.

The animal feed sector -- currently one of the main markets for GM soy beans and maize in the EU -- is most likely to feel the impact of the change.

But the directives on traceability only go so far -- they do not for example require labelling for the meat, milk or eggs of animals reared on GM feed, a fact sharply criticised by the Greenpeace pressure group.

Europe's biotechnology industry umbrella group, EuropaBio, has welcomed the rules as the "world's first system for consumer choice", although calling for an end to the EU's ban on GM products.

EuropaBio "is waiting impatiently for the process of approving GM foods based on tranparent, scientific analysis to resume", the group said.

The EU imposed a moratorium on the import and cultivation of GM products in 1999, at the initiative of five countries -- Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg, which were later joined by Austria and Belgium.

The freeze was imposed against a backdrop of public disquiet in Europe on the issue of so-called "Frankenfoods".

The United States, which has the world's biggest biotech industry, is leading a group of 12 countries seeking to overturn the EU moratorium through the World Trade Organisation.

There had been hope the EU labelling rules would ease the transatlantic row over GM foods, but Washington has attacked them as protectionism in disguise.

The measures will apply to the 16 types of GM products currently allowed inside the EU, and to the nine which are currently awaiting approval.

In a long-awaited decision, EU agriculture ministers are to rule on allowing the import of a type of GM sweetcorn, Bt-11, during an April 26-27 meeting.

The consumer safeguards provided by the new rules could make it easier for ministers to lift the moratorium on Bt-11 sweetcorn, paving the way for the authorisation of other GM imports.

But the ministers are widely expected to refer the thorny issue back to the European Commission -- the EU's executive arm -- which openly supports lifting the moratorium to encourage the GM industry in Europe.

According to the EU Confederation of Food and Drink Industries (CIAA), however, GM products will continue to arouse deep consumer suspicion even if the moratorium is lifted.

"A considerable number of consumers are against buying GM-derived foods ... the food and drink sector respects this feeling and consumers should not expect much to change" under the new rules, the organisation said.

Advocates of GM foods argue that modifications to genes promoting, for example, resistance to certain pests, could greatly increase yields and alleviate global hunger.

Opponents meanwhile say the technology is being pushed forwards by big corporations without sufficient understanding of how GM plants might affect the rest of the environment.

TERRA.WIRE