Genetically Engineered Food
Our goal at Whole Foods Market is to provide informed consumer choice with regard to genetically engineered ingredients (also known as GMOs or Genetically Modified Organisms). We do this through our support of organic agriculture along with our commitment to source our 365 Everyday Value and Whole Foods Market brand products to avoid GMOs.
When developing our store brand products, we work with our manufacturers to source non-genetically engineered ingredients. If those ingredients are not commercially available, we encourage producers to work to meet this goal.
Beginning in July 2009, we established a partnership with the Non-GMO Project to verify and label our store brand food products using the nation’s first authoritative standard.
The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping consumers make informed choices and to ensuring sustained availability of non-GMO options. Whole Foods Market is pleased to be a founding member of the group, which is a collaboration of manufacturers, retailers, processors, distributors, farmers, seed breeders and consumers. Together we have established a working standard and have developed North America’s first independent third-party Product Verification Program, which ensures that food production follows rigorous best practices for GMO avoidance.
The Product Verification Program uses a process that combines on-site facility audits, document-based review and DNA testing to verify compliance with the standard at every level of the supply chain, from manufacturing facilities to ingredient suppliers. For a product to be verified and bear the seal, it must undergo a process through which any ingredient at high risk for genetic contamination — soy or corn, for example — has been proven to meet the non-GMO standard through avoidance practices and testing.
Once a product has been approved through the Product Verification Program it can be described as being verified by the Non-GMO Project and/or be labeled with the Non-GMO Project’s compliance seal. Products bearing this seal will begin arriving in our stores late in the fall of 2009.
GMOs & Certified Organic Products
By law, organic products must be created only with non-genetically engineered ingredients, and all of our organic Whole Foods Market brand products are labeled as not grown from genetically engineered seed.
We also encourage other manufacturers and producers to create products without genetically engineered ingredients or processes and to label them as such.
Buying organic products throughout our stores is another way for customers to choose non-genetically engineered foods. Accordingly, we encourage manufacturers and producers to label organic products as not grown from genetically engineered seed.