USDA To Verify Non-GMO Claims

There is now a U.S. Department of Agriculture label for non-GMO claims. In a recent memo, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced that the USDA would verify non-GMO claims through the Agricultural Marketing Service's (AMS) Process Verified Program. The memo states that "a leading global company asked AMS to help verify that the corn and soybeans it uses in its products are not genetically engineered so that the company could label the products as such."

Though the Process Verified Program is not new, this is the first non-GMO claim verified through the USDA. The memo states that "other companies are already lining up to take advantage of this service." The USDA label is likely to provide more legal protection for manufacturers because, until now, there has been no government-approved "non-GMO standard."