A new study commissioned by the German Green party concludes that the free trade agreement Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) being negotiated by the EU and the US will open the floodgates for genetically manipulated food, despite the EU's insistence that it won't.

In the study, author Christoph Then analyzed and compared US and European GMO legislation and found fundamental differences. In Europe, he says, recombinant plants and foods must be subjected to a scientific risk analysis. In the US, by contrast, he says GMO crops are assumed to be safe before being brought on the market if no evidence that they are unsafe has been published previously.

Then points out also that in the EU the food safety authority EFSA, which has responsibility for conducting risk analyses, has no power to decide on whether or not the product will be registered, whereas in North America the registration authorities also are responsible for the risk analysis.

The third difference between existing EU and US legislation, the study says, is that in the EU risks are assessed according to the way in which the plant was grown. GMO tomatoes, for example, are assessed differently from those grown for genetically manipulated seed. In the US and Canada, all foods are assessed in the same way. What's more - again in contrast to the EU - in the US, labeling of genetically altered foods on the packaging is not required.

Under discussion in the TTIP negotiations is including the growing method in the product's bar code, rather than on the packaging. This information would have to be read with a scanner, however, which critics say would make it difficult in particular for the elderly to be properly informed about what kind of food they are buying.

On Jan. 22, the plenary session of the European Parliament is due to vote on a new opt-out clause for EU member states, making it easier for them to ban the planting of GMO crops, despite proposed European legislation that would ease the rules generally.

While in the past national governments could refuse to allow such plantings only on safety grades, the new legislation proposes to allow an opt-out on environmental grounds.