South Korea expands mandatory GM labelling to include edible oil and fats products
30/07/2026 (Oils and Fats Magazine) - The South Korean government has revised standards for mandatory labelling to cover specific food items that do not contain detectable genetically modified (GM) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or protein including edible oil and fats products, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported.
Announced on 8 July by the Republic of Korea’s ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), the new requirements would take effect on 31 December 2026, the 17 July report said.
Edible oils listed in the report included soyabean, corn, canola, and cottonseed.
Animal oil and fats, such as edible tallow oil and lard, processed edible oil and fats products, including mixed cooking oil, flavoured oil, shortening and margarines were also included.
The new labelling requirements would also cover soya sauce products and saccharides, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) report said.
Explaining the decision behind the new GM labelling standards, the government and MFDS officials said they would uphold consumers’ right to know and provide customers with more choices.
The move followed the government’s approval of the revised Food Sanitation Act on 30 December 2025, to expand mandatory GM labelling requirements to non-detectable products.
Product categories other than soya sauce, saccharides and oil and fat products were not subject to the expanded GM labelling requirement, even if they included raw materials the Korean Food Code classified as soya sauce, saccharides, and oil and fat products.
For example, a salad dressing containing soyabean oil would not be subject to mandatory GM labelling unless it contained ingredients with detectable foreign DNA or protein.
GM labelling requirements for products with detectable foreign DNA or protein had been in place since 2001, the report said.