Members of an international commission on food standards are expected to clash on safety standards for genetically modified foods during a four-day meeting beginning today in Chiba Prefecture, government sources said Monday.
The meeting will be the first of the Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Codex Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology, a body under the 165-member Codex Alimentarius Commission.
The sources said that nations such as Denmark will insist on a "precautionary principle" banning the commercialization of GM foods unless their safety is guaranteed. The United States, however, will object to singling out such foods and screening them, the sources said.