General Mills Announces GMO Labeling for US Products

Posted on Mar 18 2016 - 8:15pm by Sustainable Pulse

General Mills, the Minneapolis based food giant, has announced Friday that consumers all over the U.S. will soon begin seeing GMO labeling legislated by the state of Vermont on many General Mills products.

Jeff Harmening, the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, for U.S. Retail at General Mills stated in a blog post, after the blocking of the new Dark Act in the U.S. Senate, that;

“As the discussions continue in Washington, one thing is very clear: Vermont state law requires us to start labeling certain grocery store food packages that contain GMO ingredients or face significant fines.

“We can’t label our products for only one state without significantly driving up costs for our consumers and we simply will not do that.

“The result: consumers all over the U.S. will soon begin seeing words legislated by the state of Vermont on the labels of many of their favorite General Mills products.”

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General Mills also added a section to their website Friday that gives consumers the chance to see which of their products contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

General Mills is the second giant U.S. food company to have announced voluntary GMO labeling, following the lead of Campbell’s. Both of these companies are or were from the Grocery Manufacturers Association’s (GMA) coalition of Big Food that has been fighting against GMO labeling in the U.S. for the past few years.

Harmening concluded; “We will continue advocating for a national solution to GMO communications to consumers, but on behalf of all the passionate food makers here at General Mills, we look forward to moving beyond this divisive topic and getting back to creating great food that people love.”

This move by General Mills must be treated with caution for now as it is only voluntary labeling that can be pulled at any time. The announcement also comes at a time when Big Food is pushing for anti-consumer federal compromise solutions for GMO labeling in the U.S., such as the use of mandatory QR codes or voluntary labeling.

Sustainable Pulse supports the call for consumer friendly mandatory GMO labeling which involves the simple words: Produced With Genetic Engineering.

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Sustainable Pulse is a global news outlet covering sustainable agriculture, GMOs and pesticides.

6 Comments so far. Feel free to join this conversation.

  1. Cheerios to All! March 18, 2016 at 20:47 -

    Great Job, General Mills! Thanks for being a real leader.

    Indeed, Cheerios is looking quite palatable to me at this moment.

  2. Susan Robertson March 18, 2016 at 22:26 -

    Thank you so much for labeling your products. I just want to know what is in my food so I can make a choice. Thank you for being a leader in this. And I will still buy Cheerios!!! Can’t wait to see more of your product line that will not contain GMO. Thanks again.

  3. Leslie Goldman March 19, 2016 at 00:18 -

    Good job General Mills! Thanks for supporting the right to know! Please give me one organic product and I’ll definitely do more to give you props! Your voluntary label makes me happy.

    Leslie Goldman @yourEG
    your enchanted Gardener
    #Plantyourdreamblog

  4. Larissa March 19, 2016 at 09:42 -

    Great news for US consumers, what about the rest of the world? Your products are on our shelves, and I don’t buy any American product that doesn’t state it s organic or GMO free, and am not alone in this. The list of boycotts is getting longer and longer!

  5. D. Sali March 19, 2016 at 16:52 -

    If General Mills is the least bit concerned with sales in Canada then it would be prudent for them to label all their refined food (and I use that word food loosely) for every country they ship their poison to.

  6. NICHOLAS PERONE March 20, 2016 at 18:12 -

    Thank you General Mills for supporting our right to know. I feel that nGeneeral Mills should do this for the rest of the world also!.