NEW YORK, Jan 8 — Campbell Soup Co, the maker of canned tomato and mushroom soups, said it would back rules being considered in the US to establish a single mandatory labelling standard for genetically modified food.

The Camden, New Jersey-based company will support federal legislation that would require all foods and beverages regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture to be clearly labelled for genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, it said in a statement today. Campbell Soup will also withdraw from all efforts led by groups opposing such measures.

Labelling standards for genetically modified food have become a hotly contested issue, with food makers protesting as individual states such as Vermont, Maine and Connecticut propose their own mandatory labelling laws.

Campbell Soup “continues to oppose a patchwork of state-by-state labelling laws, which it believes are incomplete, impractical and create unnecessary confusion for customers,” it said in the statement. The company “continues to recognise that GMOs are safe, as the science indicates that foods derived from crops grown using genetically modified seeds are not nutritionally different from other foods,” it added. — Bloomberg