The food and drug authority in Northwest China's Gansu Province on Thursday told markets to set up special zones for genetically modified (GM) food.

The move was designed to guarantee the consumers' right to know what they are buying.

All food vendors in the province must establish a special counter or shelf for GM food in their stores from March 1, 2014. They are also ordered to post notices in prominent positions in unified forms.

All GM food should clearly indicate the contents and ingredients on their labels, it said.

GM food has remained controversial for nearly two decades after being introduced to the commercial market, as there is still no consensus on whether it is harmful to humans.

The debate in China has been intensified by a feud between famed TV host Cui Yongyuan, who is against GM food, and Fang Zhouzi, an expert in chemical biology, who believes GM food has an important role to play in feeding the Chinese population.

China has a strict trademark mechanism for GM products, including clear labeling, but many transgenetic products remain without such labels.

Zhangye in Gansu Province was the first city to ban the cultivation, trade or use of genetically modified (GM) seeds, but not food, in October.

Cotton is the only domestically planted GM crop that has undergone tests and received full authorization from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Being a large corn importer, Chinese Quarantine authorities in four provinces have rejected 12 shipments, or 545,000 metric tons, of US corn up to December 19, after detecting a genetically modified variant known as MIR 162 in them, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on Friday.

Global Times - Xinhua