BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: And how do you know if bio-engineered food is in your diet? As CNN medical correspondent Eileen O'Connor explains, it's not just as easy as reading a label.</s>EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bio- engineered food is produced from crops that are genetically altered in laboratories to make them more pest-resistant and in some cases to make them more nutritious. While some argue they hold great potential, others say not enough testing has been done on their long- term effects on health and the environment. While the industry and the FDA says there is no evidence of any problems thus far, environmental groups say the reason for that could be the lack of any testing to uncover such evidence.</s>JEFF MENDELSON, CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY: Is our government allowing foods that could have potential allerginicity effects, new ones on the market without even having the ability to understand what they really are?</s>O'CONNOR: That is why environmental consumer groups and some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are calling for mandatory testing of the products before they go on the market and follow-up testing after it's made its way onto consumer plates. They also want them labeled so consumers know when genetically-engineered crops have been used in the food they eat.</s>SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: We require food manufactures to tell Americans how much fat, sugar, protein, carbohydrates are in a product. We require food manufacturers to tell Americans whether an ingredient is natural or artificial. So why not tell Americans whether the ingredients in their food are natural or genetically engineered?</s>O'CONNOR: The industry says such labeling would cause fear among consumers, implying there is cause for concern. They say bio- engineered food is no different from any other. Eileen O'Connor, CNN, Washington.
Congress Could Force Food Industry to Label Bio-Engineered Products