To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what factors underlay his Department's decision to set genetically modified (GM) contamination levels at 0.9 per cent. in foods before GM labelling is required. (99026)

In 2003, the Member States of the European Union (EU) decided collectively that crops or food ingredients should be exempted from carrying a genetically modified (GM) label if they have an adventitious, or technically unavoidable presence of an approved GM organism below 0.9 per cent. This is specified in EU law.