The production of products in our diverse food portfolio requires the use of a wide range of ingredients and additives. We continue to monitor industry best practices and will note any updates to ingredients as they apply to our products in the future. Technological advancements continue to drive beneficial changes in many of the ingredients that go into our products, including crop and vegetable components.
We’re committed to ensuring the food we offer worldwide is tasty, wholesome and above all, safe for our consumers. To maintain this commitment, we understand it is imperative to provide consumers with precise and credible information that they need to determine which products meet their nutritional requirements.
We believe the best way of doing so is through accurate and transparent labeling so that consumers can see easily and right away that the products they are buying, cooking and eating are up to their expectations. Our labeling practices follow industry best practices and applicable regulations to ensure the presentation of product information is easily understandable and truthful. We also have a large and knowledgeable team that is available to answer questions submitted via our website through phone, email and other communication channels regarding our products, including their ingredients and nutritional content.
To provide easily accessible information for a portion of products in our portfolio, we employ SmartLabel, a widely used platform created by the Consumer Brands Association, that is designed to provide detailed product information beyond the package label across a wide array of food and consumer goods categories. In addition, we are using the newer front-of-packaging labeling system that was also developed by the Consumer Brands Association on a number of our Planters® and Corn Nuts® products to display key nutrition information on the fronts of packages, with an aim to support more efficient gathering of product information and well-informed purchasing decisions.
We follow FDA and USDA regulations for nutrient content claims on packages to educate consumers on nutritional attributes. These claims include, but are not limited to, low fat, fat free, low sodium, reduced sodium, lite, lightly salted or high in protein. Product labeling about bioengineered food ingredients that are used in our products is included on packaging in accordance with the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard.
GMOs
Providing consumers with safe products is the No. 1 priority at Hormel Foods. We understand that consumers may have questions about genetically modified food ingredients, more commonly referred to as genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Many of the most influential regulatory agencies and organizations that study the safety of the food supply have found GMO food ingredients to be safe, with no negative health effects associated with their use. This includes the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, Health Canada, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Academy of Sciences.
This technology makes food more plentiful by adding desirable traits from nature without introducing anything unnatural or using chemicals.
This technology is not new. In fact, it has been around for the past 20 years. Today, 70 to 80% of the food we eat in the United States, both at home and away from home, contain ingredients that have been genetically modified. If the ingredient label on any food or beverage product contains corn or soy, it most likely contains GMO ingredients, as a very high percentage of crops grown in the United States use GM technology. A larger number of other ingredients in the United States, such as sugar beets, are grown with the use of GM technology as well.
Ingredients grown using genetically modified technology require fewer pesticides and less water. In addition, they keep production costs down. In fact, this technology helps reduce the price of crops such as corn, soybeans and sugar beets by as much as 15 to 30%. Hunger is a major problem worldwide, with more than 10% of the population having less than enough to eat. Safe and effective methods of food production, including crops produced through GM technology, can help us feed the hungry and malnourished in developing nations around the world.
Hormel Foods will continue to advocate for the ongoing safe and effective use of agricultural biotechnology to increase the food supply and lower costs. We will also persist in engaging in an informative dialogue with our consumers so they understand the safety, prevalence and benefits of this technology so they can make informed choices for themselves and their families.
For consumers who are interested in alternative choices, we offer our Applegate® product portfolio, which is GMO-ingredient free.