General Mills says it will begin labeling all of its products that contain ingredients sourced from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in response to complying with a Vermont law requiring the labels that will go into effect this year.
Company Executive Vice President and COO Jeff Harmening announced the change in a blog post on Friday that calls for a national solution to the GMO labeling problem.
“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,” Harmening wrote. “The result: consumers all over the US will soon begin seeing words legislated by the state of Vermont on the labels of many of their favorite General Mills products. With the Vermont labeling legislation upon us, and with the distinct possibility that other states will enact different labeling requirements, what we need is simple: We need a national solution.”
General Mills joins Campbell Soup as two of the largest food manufacturers to publically commit to labeling all of their food products that contain genetically modified ingredients.
A recent Republican effort to create a federal labeling standard for products containing GMOs was rejected by the Senate last week after failing to secure the necessary votes needed to prevent a filibuster.
With the food industry unwilling to throw in the towel just yet, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) says General Mills’ announcement is the latest example of how Vermont’s law is becoming a big problem for businesses. “Food companies are being forced to make decisions on how to comply and having to spend millions of dollars,” GMA says. “One small state’s law is setting labeling standards for consumers across the country.”
