Consumers will soon see the letters "N-O" and "G-M-O" on more food packages.

The USDA issued a guidance last week that will allow meat, poultry and egg products to be labeled as non-GMO, using phrases like, "no GMO ingredients" or "derived from beef fed no GMO feed."

The guidance is one of the federal department's first actions stemming from the GMO labeling law enacted in July that requires some products made with GMOs be labeled through a variety of ways.

To label a product as "non-" is a negative claim. Prior to the guidance, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service only allowed the use of the phrases "GMO" and "genetically modified organism" on livestock or poultry products if it was a part of the name of a third-party certifying organization, like the "Non-GMO Project."

The guidance doesn't specify the allowable limit of trace GMO content in food, though it does adopt the federal law's definition of bioengineering.

See the non-GMO label guide here.

Read More:

• USDA Loosens Rules on Labeling Meat, Poultry as Non-GMO (Bloomberg)
• If a cow eats genetically modified feed, should its milk be labeled as GMO? (Michigan Public Radio)
• USDA shifts GMO labeling policy for meat, eggs (Capital Press)