Judge dismisses biotech policy lawsuit. In late September, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) regulatory policies concerning genetically engineered foods. The Alliance for Bio-Integrity and other public interest and religious groups had made allegations about the legality of FDA's 1992 Policy Statement, Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties."

Among other rulings, the court deferred to FDA's view that genetically engineered foods as a class do not require premarket review and approval of a food additive petition. The court also accepted FDA's view that special labeling for genetically engineered foods as a class is not required solely because of consumer demand or because of the process used to develop these foods. In a nutshell, the ruling allows FDA to consider foods produced through biotechnology to be essentially the same as conventional foods.