The contentious battle over mandatory GMO labelling rages on months after the deadline for federal regulation. Michael Levitin and Terry Slavin report 

Two years after former US President Barack Obama signed a law mandating the disclosure of all genetically modified (GMO) ingredients on food packaging, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has overshot the July 31 deadline to bring in new food labelling laws, amid rising consumer opposition to GMO food.

The USDA received more than 14,000 comments when it published its proposed National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard in May, and though the consultation period ended July 3, Gregory Jaffe, the director of the Project on Biotechnology at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, suggests that it will be “several months” before the USDA publishes the new food labelling standards.

The USDA is now saying it will be January 2020 at the earliest before the regulations come into force for large food companies, and a year later for small ones.