General Mills came out with a statement Friday, March 18th, that it will start labeling its products that contain genetically modified ingredients (GMO’s). The company is doing this in response to a law going into effect in Vermont later this year. The Vermont law will require all products that contain GMO’s to be identified starting July 1st. General Mills said that its more cost effective to adopt the practice across the country now, rather than later, in order to keep price levels from rising. General Mills joins Campbell Soup in adopting the labeling of GMO’s in their products amid a contentious debate in Congress whether identifying GMO’s should be a voluntary act or not. However, not all of General Mills foods will be identified with GMO’s. The new labeling will hit the grocery stores over the next couple of weeks. In addition to the new labeling General Mills launched a tool on their website that will allow you to look up if a certain product has GMO’s. However, GMO’s are a very controversial topic especially when this comes to health. Hopefully this move doesn’t come back to haunt General Mills.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/03/18/general-mills-to-label-gmos-on-products/81981314/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/03/18/general-mills-to-label-gmos-on-products/81981314/
The issue of GMOs has been such a contested debate over the past few years, and I don't see it changing any time soon. However, General Mills may find this practice advantageous as they may be ahead of the curve if it is ruled that all GMO-products must be labelled. Chipotle has always been very forward with their stance on GMO-produced ingredients and they have continued to do quite well, even with the E. coli scare a month or two ago.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very responsible of companies like General Mills and Chipotle to be forward about what is in their food and to be dedicated to fixing issues that these companies may have with their foods. This could be beneficial for General Mills in the long-run as consumers see that General Mills is not trying to hide information about their products from consumers which will increase the confidence they will have when buying the products that they are getting exactly what they think they are buying.
ReplyDeleteIt reassures trust with consumers knowing that companies like Chipotle and General Mills are taking measures to make sure they don't hide any information from consumers. It shows goodwill and perhaps sets the trend for other companies to perhaps follow and see it doesn't necessarily hurt the reputation and sales to come out with this important information.
ReplyDeleteI think General Mills is taking a huge step in consumer transparency. Hopefully, other companies will use their example and follow suit!
ReplyDeletei think it will be interesting to see the effects of them labeling their items made with GMOs. It is a widley talked about area in the health market and can be considered harmful to health. it will be interesting to see if ion effects their sales or prices.It is nice to see the transparncy that companies are stating to show in their products now and maybe other big companies will follow their lead.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this will initially have a big effect on General Mills' sales of the products that contain GMO's and over time, those products will eventually either transform to non-GMO products or there will be laws not allowing products that contain GMOs.
ReplyDeleteYeah I think its good that companies like General Mills are attempting to be clear about what is in their products. However, the GMOs debate is the same as labeling something "organic." It in of itself isn't a good or bad thing, it depends on the specific context of what that means. As consumers we have to not be so distracted by these things and assume that these terms mean something that they might not. It can be a big pain for companies that they have to go through these procedures for things that may not even be relevant in some contexts, but in other cases it allows companies to rebrand their products and say they're organic, or fresh or non-gmo's (when they might not have changed the actually product at all just the packaging). But consumers may pick the "non-gmos, organic, fresh" product over another product all things equal.
ReplyDeleteThis a very interesting article for the food and drug industry. I really respect this move made by General Mills to identify all genetically modified ingredients that are included in their products. The big question is, will this move hurt or benefit the company more/less in the long run. This could definitely hurt General Mills because GMO's are just very frowned upon in the health world in general. This could also really help the business by how customer trust may increase with disclosure of this GMO containing information. I think it is safe to say that people in today's age have a good idea that GMO's are used in so many different foods that we consume on a daily basis, so General Mills identifying GMO's will not be a surprise to many people. I think this move of exposure will be a good thing for General Mills in the long run. It seems Campbell's soup has done just fine after identifying GMO's.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Samuel's point regarding "GMO" and "Organic" labels. Although this is a great way to increase transparency between customer and consumer, I do not believe this label will carry much significance. It will be interesting to see wether this transparency will attract more consumers or if it will backfire and cause consumers to stray away from "GMO" labeled foods.
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ReplyDeleteI wonder if other companies begin to implement this same plan of releasing GMO's if it is more cost effective. Interesting to see how this ends up.
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