No more GMOs in Cheerios. Will a lot more foods go GMO-free now? (BLOG)

Critics of genetically modified foods have reason today to feel a lot more cheery about the popular breakfast cereal Cheerios.

General Mills Inc., the maker of the toasted oat cereal, said Cheerios will be free of genetically modified organisms, making it the first major food brand in the United States to abide by the demands of consumers and advocacy groups opposed to the use of GMOs in food products.

The Minneapolis-based company said the move away from GMOs will only affect the "Original" brand of Cheerios, the boxes of which will now include a new label: "Not Made With Genetically Modified Ingredients."

The company's other Cheerios varieties, such as Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios, will not be included in the shift from GMOs, said General Mills, which explains it had worked for more than a year on eliminating GMO content from Original Cheerios.

Last year, the advocacy group Green America launched GMO-Inside, a campaign asking General Mills to go GMO-free, which garnered huge positive response from consumers.

The group said in a statement posted on its Website that "thousands of concerned consumers have flooded Cheerios' Facebook page," responding to a call to protest General Mills' contribution of more than $1.1 million to battle a voter initiative in California that required labeling of GM ingredients.

"Removing GMOs from original Cheerios is an important victory in getting GMOs out of our food supply and an important first step for General Mills," Todd Larsen, Corporate Responsibility Director at Green America, said in a statement.

The company emphasized the Original Cheerios would taste the same as always, but fell short of revealing when exactly the cereal will show up in stores.

General Mills remarked in a statement that it could bring about changes to the basic Cheerios because "the main ingredient in original Cheerios is whole grain oats -- and there are no GMO oats.

"We use just a small amount of corn starch in cooking, and just one gram of sugar per serving for taste. So we were able to change how we source and handle ingredients to ensure that the corn starch for original Cheerios comes only from non-GMO corn, and our sugar is only non-GMO pure cane sugar."

The company notes, however, that the product may still have some traces of genetically modified ingredients, a result of contamination from other sources during manufacturing or shipping.

General Mills said it has taken steps to change the sourcing of the original Cheerios and has made fresh investments to separate the production of GMO-free Cheerios from other varieties as much as possible.

The company said it couldn't stop using GMOs in other product lines because use of GM seeds is widespread in the U.S.

 "We made investments in new systems at our production facilities to separate the ingredients we use to make original Cheerios from our other products. For example, we store only non-GMO corn starch where we store our corn starch and only cane sugar where we store our sugar," continued the company in its statement.

"For our other cereals, the widespread use of GM seed in crops such as corn, soy, or beet sugar would make reliably moving to non-GM ingredients difficult, if not impossible," the statement said.

Latin Post.

Advertisement

You have just read the article News for today's that category by title No more GMOs in Cheerios. Will a lot more foods go GMO-free now? (BLOG). You can bookmark this page with a URL http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2014/01/no-more-gmos-in-cheerios-will-lot-more.html. Thank you!

Posted by: Anonymous No more GMOs in Cheerios. Will a lot more foods go GMO-free now? (BLOG) Updated at : 2:00 AM

Friday, January 3, 2014