General Mills cuts out GM content from Cheerios

General Mills Inc has cut out the genetically modified content from Cheerios, in a move that sees one of the highest-profile brands switch to non-'genetically modified organism' (GMO) content amid growing complaints over such ingredients from activist groups and some consumers.

Critics of GMO use in foods hailed the move a major victory.

The change, which would affect only the original Cheerios, not other varieties like Honey Nut Cheerios had been in the offing since about a year ago, when General Mills started to change the manufacturing process for Cherios eliminating ingredients containing genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.

Manufacturing of the GMO-free cereal got under way several weeks ago, and it was expected to be available to consumers "shortly," once the products had made their way through the distribution system and onto shelves.

The Cheerios would carry the label "Not Made With Genetically Modified Ingredients," though the company noted that they could contain trace amounts due to contamination in shipping or manufacturing.

Advocacy groups had raised concerns about possible health problems from GMOs, which are crops like corn grown from seeds genetically engineered for desirable traits like pest resistance.

Announcing the change late Thursday, the Minneapolis-based company said it would use cornstarch and sugar that were not genetically modified when producing the cereal.

Christian Science Monitor quoted Ken Albala, a food historian at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California as saying,  General Mills was finally realising that, whichever the way the trend went, they were going to follow it. He predicted that "an avalanche" of food companies would follow the General Mills lead.

According to the US Department of Agriculture's definition, genetic modification was ''the production of heritable improvements in plants or animals for specific uses, via either genetic engineering or other more traditional methods.''

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been banned in at least 26 countries, including Switzerland, Australia, China, India, France, Russia, Italy, and Greece, while 60 other countries had restrictions on their use.

According to critics, GMO ingredients could reduce the nutritional value of the foods in which they were used, and might have harmful consequences for human health and the environment.

According to the Grocery Manufacturers Association in Washington, between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of the food consumed in the US contained ingredients contained genetically modified ingredients (See: Labelling of GM foods becoming hot potato in US).