In response to recent consumer demands, General Mills, Minneapolis, MN, is now producing its popular cereal Cheerios without ingredients containing genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.
 
In a statement from the company, General Mills explained,  “It’s the unique and simple nature of original Cheerios that made this possible — and even that required significant investment over nearly a year.”  The company added, “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.”
 
Within the past year GMO Inside, a campaign of the national non-profit organization Green America, starting calling on consumers to put pressure on General Mills to make Cheerios without GMOs due to concerns over the health and environmental impacts of GMOs. Cheerios are a top selling cereal in the U.S. and often one of the first solid foods fed to children. As soon as the campaign launched, tens of thousands of consumers started flooding Cheerios’ Facebook page with concerned comments regarding GMOs in Cheerios. GMO Inside also issues a corporate responsibility report for General Mills, launched an email and phone call campaign, and even produced a widely viewed video calling on General Mills to remove GMOs from Cheerios.
 
Green America corporate responsibility director Todd Larsen commented, “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. Original Cheerios in its famous yellow box will now be non-GMO and this victory sends a message to all food companies that consumers are increasingly looking for non-GMO products and companies need to meet that demand.”
 
John W Roulac, GMO Inside co-founder and co-chair stated: “This is a huge victory for the non-GMO movement. I want to thank all the GMO Insiders for using social media to convince America’s largest packed food brand to go non-GMO with a major product. History is being made today and more food brands will rush towards non-GMO foods.”