Supermarket chain Whole Foods Market has announced that all the products in its US and Canadian stores will be labeled to indicate the presence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by 2018.
With this decision, Whole Foods Market has become the first national grocery chain to set a deadline for full GMO transparency.
The new labeling task is set to encourage manufacturers to ask questions pertaining to ingredients, and will help the retailer to provide better transparency about the products sold to its customers, according to the company.
Whole Foods Market co-CEO Walter Robb said the prevalence of GMOs in the US combined with non-existent mandatory labeling makes it tough for retailers to source non-GMO options and for consumers to select non-GMO products.
"Accordingly, we are stepping up our support of certified organic agriculture, where GMOs are not allowed, and we are working together with our supplier partners to grow our non-GMO supply chain to ensure we can continue to provide these choices in the future," Robb said.
Over the past few years, Whole Foods Market has been teaming up with its supplier partners to source products without GMO ingredients.
As part of this plan, in 2009, the retailer began putting its 365 Everyday Value line through Non-GMO Project verification and suggested its supplier partners to do the same. Currently, the company sells 3,300 Non-GMO Project verified products from 250 brands in North America.
It plans to work with suppliers in all categories as they change to ingredients from non-GMO sources, or clearly label products with GMOs.
