At the 30th annual Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA, Whole Foods Market announced that it will require products containing genetically modified ingredients and sold in its U.S. and Canadian stores to be labeled as containing such ingredients by 2018.
Whole Foods is requiring GMO labeling in response to its belief that consumers have a right to know what is in their food. It was spurred to take action because of the lack of mandatory labeling standards in the U.S. despite increasing consumer demand for such labeling.
Whole Foods chose to give companies five years to comply because what it is asking them to do will take a lot of work and is complicated.
Products that have gone through Non-GMO Project Verification or that are certified organic already satisfy Whole Food’s new labeling standards.
