Whole Foods to label GMO foods

Genetically modified ingredients to be labeled within five years.

The New York Times
March 11, 2013 at 1:41AM
A customer walks home from the Whole Foods Market in Cambridge, Mass., Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008. Whole Foods Market is recalling fresh ground beef sold between June 2 through Aug. 6 after reports that customers in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were sickened. Some of Whole Foods beef is supplied by Nebraska Beef Ltd, which is recalling 1.2 million pounds of beef because the products may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria.
A customer walks home from the Whole Foods Market in Cambridge, Mass (Elliott Polk (Clickability Client Services) — Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Whole Foods Market, the grocery chain, announced Friday that it would require all foods sold in its stores that contain genetically modified ingredients to be labeled as such within five years.

The company is the first retailer in the country to require the labeling, and its executives received a standing ovation when they made the announcement during the Natural Products Expo West, a trade conference, in California.

A.C. Gallo, president of Whole Foods, said the move came in response to consumer demand.

Labels now used on Whole Foods products disclose when a product has been verified as free of genetically engineered ingredients by the Non-GMO Project, a nonprofit certification organization.

"We've seen how our customers have responded to the products we do have labeled," Gallo said. "Some of our manufacturers say they've seen a 15 percent increase in sales of products they have labeled" as certified by the group.

The announcement ricocheted around the food industry and excited proponents of labeling.

"Fantastic," said Mark Kastel, co-director of Cornucopia, an organic advocacy group that favors more labeling.

Gary Hirshberg, chairman of Just Label It, a campaign for a federal requirement to label foods containing genetically modified ingredients, called the Whole Foods decision a "game changer."

"We've had some pretty big developments in labeling this year, with 22 states now having some sort of pending labeling legislation," Hirshberg said. "Now, one of the fastest-growing, most successful retailers in the country is throwing down the gauntlet."

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