Campbell Soup Company to Label GM Products

Despite no voluntary or mandatory labeling standard, Campbell Soup Company will voluntarily label its U.S. products that include genetically modified organisms.

The company becomes the first major food company to start such labeling. Reuters reports that as the nation’s largest soup maker, Campbell Soup Company maker broke ranks with peers and said it supported the enactment of federal legislation for a single mandatory labeling standard for GMO-derived foods and a national standard for non-GMO claims made on food packaging.

The company, which also makes Pepperidge Farm cookies and Prego pasta sauces, said it would withdraw from all efforts by groups opposing such measures.

Campbell said last week that if a federal solution is not achieved in some time, it was prepared to label all its U.S. products for the presence of ingredients that were derived from GMOs and would seek guidance from the FDA and approval by USDA.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents more than 300 food companies opposed to mandatory GMO labeling, said it respected the rights of individual members, but said it was "imperative" that Congress acted immediately to prevent the expansion of a costly patchwork of state labeling laws.

Source: NAFB