Whole Foods to Add GMO Labels to All Products

Whole Foods Markets announced last week that it will require all of its suppliers to include GMO labels on their products within the next five years. Whole Foods is the first national grocery chain to specify a deadline for such labeling. The five-year target date is meant to provide suppliers enough time to find non-GMO ingredients or begin labeling products that contain ingredients with GMOs.

Genetically-modified organisms, or GMOs for short, are plants or animals that contain altered DNA that does not occur naturally. While the potential health risks are still up for the debate—the World Health Organization states that GMO foods are “not likely to present risks for human health,” but consumer advocacy groups like the Non-GMO Project beg to differ—the fact is that foods containing GMOs are not required to be labeled as such, and that makes some consumers nervous. Whole Foods’s move is one of greater transparency, sort of a “The More You Know”-type campaign aimed at helping shoppers make more informed decisions about what they’re eating.

Since 2009, Whole Foods has worked with the Non-GMO Project to get 3,300 of its products verified as non-GMO. So until the store-wide switchover happens in 2018, you can still use those labels as guides.

“We offer more non-GMO verified products than any other retailer in North America, and our customers are seeking out these products more and more,” said Whole Foods president A.C. Gallo in an announcement at the National Products Expo last week. “We’re responding to our customers who have consistently asked us for GMO labeling and we’re doing so by focusing on where we have control in our own stores.”

Check out a video of the full announcement here.