"The [Food and Drug Association] up to now has said that GMOs are safe, but we also recognize that some consumers want more information and companies might want to include GMO information, so we are asking the FDA to outline labeling standards companies can use voluntarily," Pamela Bailey, president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association said in a press conference.

But does telling consumers that their food contains GMOs or GEs really help the consumer know what’s in their food? Gregory Jaffe, director Biotechnology Project, a nonprofit consumer food safety advocacy organization, argues that it does not.

“When you get into the labeling debate, the devil is in the details,” Jaffe said. “One of the questions you need to ask is whether [the consumer] knows what GE is.”

Simply labeling something as containing a GMO or GE won’t be effective, he said, because in the vast majority of cases, you can’t differentiate them from conventionally-grown crops.

“Most of the GMO that ends up the food supply is high processed,” Jaffe said. “And when they are that highly processed, it’s impossible to distinguish what comes from GMO crops and what doesn’t. There isn’t any biological or chemical way to identify the difference.”

What the Heck is a GMO Anyway?

Genetically modified organisms and genetically engineered crops are created when scientists remove a gene from one organism, or a specific variety of one, and transfer the gene to a different one. This method can be used to give the organism a new gene, get it to express one that is otherwise silent, or silence an existing gene. This allows scientists to create foods that are more resilient to pests, healthier, or with different tastes.

This process sounds scary, Jaffe said, and consumers have come to think of GMO foods as some kind of mad science experiment when in actuality, the scientific consensus is that the food is perfectly safe.

“People in the U.S. are far from their food," Jaffe said. "They don’t know how much manipulation goes on in lab for non-GMO food we eat every day. So when they learn about GMOs, it’s alarming.”

Although Batcha said she wouldn’t comment on the safety of GMOs, she stressed that the number of states and countries that have proposed or passed initiatives to mandate labeling shows that the majority of consumers are in favor.

“There are two states, Connecticut and Maine, that have legislation mandating GMO labeling,” Batcha said. “However, the legislation has a clause that four surrounding states have to mandate labeling as well before it goes into effect.”

“26 states last year had labeling legislation in the works,” she added, “and 64 countries have passed mandatory GMO labeling laws.”

And initiatives to get to FDA to mandate labeling has been met with support, Batcha said.

“We’re pushing for national mandatory labeling,” she said. “We have a petition to the FDA asking them to make labeling mandatory, and they have the power to do that without any legislation. So far we have had more than 23 million people sign the petition.”

What Does the Science Say?

On the JustLabelIt website, the organization cites safety of GMOs as one of the major reasons why consumers have a right to know what’s in their food.

“When GMOs are grown out in the environment, contamination happens and it’s not possible to control it," Megan Westgate, executive director of the Non-GMO Project, said in a statement. "That’s a real liability to our food supply because these are experimental organisms [and] we don’t know what the long-term impact is to human health or the environment.”

However, a 2013 analysis published in the journal Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, looked at all studies on GE crops over the last 10 years, and the team of Italian researchers found that of the 1,783 studies they analyzed, none demonstrated any “credible” example of GMOs or GE crops posing harm to humans or animals.

“The scientific research conducted so far has not detected any significant hazards directly connected with the use of genetically engineered crops,” the researchers wrote in the study.

Some studies have even found that some GMOs may even be good for you.

RELATED: Genetically Modified Tomatoes Could Save Your Heart

In addition, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society, released a statement in June outlining why labeling GMO products would “mislead and falsely alarm consumers.”

GM labeling initiatives are being advanced by “the persistent perception that such foods are somehow ‘unnatural,’ as well as efforts to gain competitive advantages within the marketplace, and the false belief that GM crops are untested,” the organization said in a statement.

“In the United States, in fact, each new GM crop must be subjected to rigorous analysis and testing in order to receive regulatory approval,” they added. “As a result and contrary to popular misconceptions, GM crops are the most extensively tested crops ever.”

But even Jaffe admits that the testing isn’t as ironclad as it seems.

“The way the regulatory system works in the U.S., the FDA doesn’t have enough skin in the game,” Jaffe said. “They don’t have a mandatory premarket approval process, so we can’t point to a piece of paper to show that this piece of corn is safe. The organizations are responsible for testing the product, so you’re relying on the big organizations that market them to test their safety, and that worries people.”

So which side is right? It turns out, both.

“A lot of the concerns are of health effects that wouldn’t present themselves for a long time, after eating GMOs over the course of many years,” said Ken Spaeth, MD, MPH, division chief of occupational and environmental medicine at Hofstra North Shore LIJ School of Medicine in Great Neck, N.Y. “So even though studies may not show immediate harm, there haven’t been any long term studies.”

“So while there is no basis to say GMOs cause harm, there’s no basis to say they don’t either,” Dr. Spaeth added.

For that reason, Spaeth advocates labeling GMOs to inform consumers about what’s in their food while further research is conducted.

“In public health policy, that’s often how decisions get made,” he said. “It’s not always going to be the result of hard and fast science. It’s not uncommon, in both health policy and other realms, to have policies that address public concern.”

What Constitutes a GMO Food?

So if we should label GMO foods out of public concern, what actually constitutes a food that needs labeling, Jaffe asked. Obviously a whole piece of fruit would require one, but what about food that is processed?

“The question we have to ask is whether it’s misleading consumers to identify sugar from GE sugar beets as such, when it’s really identical to sugar from non-GE sugar beets,” Jaffe said. “It’s derived from GE crops, but it’s not GE sugar. There isn’t any biological or chemical way to identify the difference.”

For that reason, Jaffe added, companies can absolutely label their foods and GMO or non-GMO if they wish, but the science is still not there to support mandatory labeling.

“Mandatory labeling should deal with allergens and safety issues,” he said. “Other issues, which may be important to consumers, may not reach the need for a mandatory labeling. The current crops and the current foods made from these crops are safe. Scientific bodies from all around the world are finding that.”

But just because the Jaffe doesn’t support labeling doesn’t mean that he doesn’t support further research.

“We need more FDA involvement,” Jaffe said, “but I think consumers need to understand the facts and understand that labeling is not as simple as everyone says.”

But for many, including Spaeth, it’s better to label and be safe, rather than sorry.

“The debate tends to be a little controversial, so there are passionate feelings on both sides,” he said. “But in general, I feel that following the precautionary principle is reasonable. Until we know it’s safe, it’s prudent to move forward slowly.”

“There’s no basis for being alarmist,” Spaeth added, “but there is reason to be as transparent as possible so people can make an informed decision.”