A few months ago, General Mills announced it would begin stripping Cheerios of genetically modified ingredients. The announcement received mixed reviews (read my oped on the issue here). General Mills claims they are only trying to satisfy consumer demand but was there really a demand? Are people really clamoring for non-GMO cheerios?
Early sales numbers suggest the answer to that question is no. Forbes contributor Dale Buss reports that sales have been disappointing:
Take an interesting but little-reported fact that has just emerged: The new, non-GMO version of Cheerios isn’t moving the sales needle significantly for General Mills and the giant cereal company isn’t planning any more non-GMO products after it went to a lot of trouble to source non-GMO Cheerios.
But these developments aren’t being reported anywhere other than in FoodBusinessNews.net, which broke the story. The silence that has greeted them is quite a contrast to the enthusiastic echo chamber that was created by legions of news media, from the food trades and way beyond, that last month hailed General Mills’ decision to begin offering its classic Cheerios cereal in mostly-non-GMO form. Soon after, Post Foods said that its Grape-Nuts cereal had been certified GMO-free.
Read his whole piece here.