Brazilian Court Oders Food Companies to Label GM food

While the battle against Genetically Modified food labeling rages on in the U.S. a definitive stand has been taken by Brazil.

A court in Brazil has ruled that Nestle label all of its products with over 1 percent GMO. This ruling came about after Nestle's strawberry flavoured Bono Cookies were found to have transgenic material. In concordance with Brazilian law, all food manufacturers will now have to let the consumers know about the food products containing GM organism, reports GM Watch.

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The cookies were found to contain genetically modified soy.

All food products containing GM content will now have to have a label: a yellow triangle with 'T' in the middle. This will be accompanied by the word "transgenic" to indicate that the food is genetically modified.

With this ruling, Brazil has joined the ranks of the countries which require the labeling of GM food, including the European Union and Japan.

This is not the first time a court in Brazil has ruled against a food company which uses GMO. Last week, Monsanto was fined heavily, for an advertisement which it released in 2004, when GM food was banned in Brazil, reports Mother Nature Network. The court fined Monsanto $250,000 for releasing a very "misleading" ad on GM soy.

Brazil has always had a tenuous relationship with GM food. GM seeds were first smuggled into the country in the 90s from neighboring Argentina. Despite a government ban on the use of GM crops, many farmers began planting GM crops and today, Brazil is the second largest producer of GM soy. The ban has long since been lifted.

Monsanto, the biotech giant, has been the company which gained the most from the lift of the ban.

In the U.S., however, the battle for the legalization of Prop 37, which requires labeling of food containing GMO, is still raging on in California. Though, the "No on 37" coalition has more funds and the support of big food companies, prop 37 is very likely to win.