General Mills gives in, will add GMO labeling
In a striking reversal for big food manufacturers, which have spent millions fighting state efforts to require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food, General Mills announced Friday that it would voluntarily add that information to its labels.
General Mills’ move is a reaction to a law due to go into effect July 1 in Vermont that will require mandatory labeling of foods with genetically modified organisms. On Wednesday, the Senate blocked efforts by Sen. Pat Roberts, R- Kan., to preempt Vermont’s law by making that labeling voluntary nationwide.
Jeff Harmening, executive vice president and chief operating officer for U. S. retail at
General Mills, explained the Minneapolis company’s move in a blog post.
“As the discussions continue in Washington, one thing is very clear: Vermont state law requires us to start labeling certain grocerystore food packages that contain GMO ingredients or face significant fines,” Harmening wrote. “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.”
Harmening also noted that “every major health and safety agency in the world agree( s) that GMOs are not a health or safety concern” — though he acknowledged that some consumers want to know about their presence in food. He also called for a national standard for labeling, especially since other states, including Connecticut and Maine, have similar pending legislation.
About three- fourths of processed foods found in American grocery stores contains some kind of engineered ingredient, most often coming from corn or soy products or byproducts, which are common in the brands of breakfast cereals, snacks and baking mixes that General Mills carries.
The company’s decision to label those ingredients follows Campbell Soup Co.’ s similar announcement in January, which was a first for major U. S. food manufacturers. Campbell’s proposed new labels contain a factbox that reads “Partially produced with genetic engineering. For information about GMO ingredients visit WhatsinMyFood. com.”
General Mills has a similar website, Ask. GeneralMills. com, where people can look up specific products like Betty Crocker pancake mix and learn that “some ingredients ( generally less than 75% of the product by weight) are from plants grown using ( genetically engineered) seed.” Or in the case of Chex Mix Dark Chocolate, “the majority of the ingredients in the product were grown from plants” using the engineered seed.
General Mills also has several organic brands that don’t contain those ingredients, like the Berkeley company Annie’s Homegrown. Organic products cannot contain engineered ingredients under organic certification rules.
Labeling of genetically engineered ingredients is required in 64 countries, and in the United States, polls show that around 90 percent of consumers support it.
“It’s another big victory for consumers,” said Gary Ruskin, founder of U. S. Right to Know in Oakland, who also led a 2012 California genetic engineering labeling initiative, Proposition 37, which the food industry — including Campbell and General Mills — spent $ 45 million to defeat. “The food industry is breaking down under consumer pressure and the looming Vermont deadline. They lost big in the Senate. They see the writing on the wall.”
Ruskin predicts that more food companies will follow General Mills’ lead and begin voluntary labeling.
Scott Faber is the senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group and executive director of the Just Label It campaign, which is supported by many large organic companies; in a statement, he applauded the company’s big move.
“Like General Mills, we hope Congress will craft a national GMO labeling solution and welcome the opportunity to work with industry to find a solution that works for consumers and works for the food industry,” he said.