BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's top court ruled Wednesday that food produced by a series of new biotechnology breeding techniques should be considered genetically modified organisms, thus falling under the EU's strict regulations of the products.

The ruling, which will see the foods face special safety checks and labeling restrictions, was seen as a major victory for environmentalists at the expense of the biotech industry.

Biotech companies have been working on a new generation of technologies to change genetic material in plants or animals, and it had long been debated whether they need...