General Mills to label foods containing GMOs

One of the largest US food companies, General Mills, said it will begin labeling foods that contain genetically modified ingredients.

In a blog post titled, “We need a national solution for GMO labeling,” executive vice president and chief operating officer Jeff Harmening said: “I have been eagerly awaiting a resolution of the GMO labeling debate in Washington and am disappointed that a national solution has still not been reached.”

He noted that the Vermont law calling for labeling of products with genetically modified ingredients is impending. “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,” he said.

“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,” he said. The Vermont law takes effect July 1.

Harmening said he still wanted a “national solution.” But he also added that “we look forward to moving beyond this divisive topic.”

In January, Campbell Soup announced that it would label all its foods that contained GMOs, if a federal labeling solution was not achieved.