Last week, General Mills announced that the company would begin labeling its products that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The move is in response to a labeling law that will be enforced in Vermont starting July 1, 2016, which will require food producers to comply with the state’s GMO labeling mandate.

Coinciding with the company’s announcement, General Mills also blogged last week about their support for a national GMO labeling standard. Rather than implementing new labeling just for foods being distributed to Vermont retailers, General Mills believes that a national standard would be more cost-effective for all involved--ultimately for consumers who do not want to pay higher food prices. However, since such legislation is far from reality, the company has decided to label their own GMO products--nationwide--in the meantime.

A third layer of General Mills’ GMO announcement is the launch of a new online tool with which consumers can do a simple search to find out if their favorite General Mills products are made with GMO ingredients.

General Mills expects their newly labeled GMO food packages to start appearing in stores over the next few weeks.

In January, another food giant--Campbell’s Soup--announced they would also begin labeling its foods with GMO ingredients to comply with Vermont’s upcoming legislation.

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