General Mills has reportedly struggled to sell Cheerios cereal free of Genetically Modified Organisms after the company took the GMOs out of the product in January.
"It's what I expected," Ken Powell, CEO at General Mill told The Minneapolis Star Tribune Wednesday. The boxes of cereal have labels that read, Not Made With Genetically Modified Organisms.
However, some do not as the GMO's were not removed from Honey Nut Cheerios, Apple Cinnamon Cheerios The Star Tribune reported.
Cereal sales have suffered due to the latest society trend where people have started to opt for greek yogurt, and breakfast sandwiches instead of regular cereal The Tribune reported.
Kellogg's sales along with General Mills have therefore reportedly taken a hit in the sales bracket
Despite the latest sales difficulty however, General Mills has been able to increase numbers through offering its Chex Mix products without Gluten.
Green America, a non-profit organization that raises awareness about environmental issues through environmental sustainability, social justice, and economic justice initiated the movement via the Cheerios Facebook page according to information on the organization's website.
General Mills has previously sold products that have had GMO's taken out of them the company reported when the labels first arrived on regular cheerios boxes.
"...Now we can say the same about the ingredients in original Cheerios," Michael Forsyth, vice president of global communications at General Mills said in a post on the company's website.
"But it's not about safety. Biotech seeds, also known as genetically modified seeds, have been approved by global food safety agencies and widely used by farmers in global food crops for almost 20 years," Forsyth said in the post.
"It was the unique and simple nature of original Cheerios that allowed this," Mike Siemienas told Bloomberg Businessweek. "For other cereals, the widespread use of GM seed for corn, soy, and beet sugar make moving to non-GMO ingredients difficult, if not impossible," Siemienas told Bloomberg Businessweek.
