Target to Remove GMOs from Major Food Brand
Super store giant, Target, has announced they will be adding a new brand to their shelves—one that is made with natural health in mind. Called Simply Balanced, the brand will be on shelves soon and will phase out genetically modified ingredients by the end of 2014.
According to a press release on the Target official website, the initial roll-out will include a selection of foods that are 40% organic and the majority of them will not contain GMOs. GMOs will be completely absent from the ingredients within the next year and a half.
This, they say, is in an effort to align with the “increasing demand for healthy food products at a great price.” The Simply Balanced brand will also exclude other harmful ingredients while striving to provide consumers with a natural and affordable store-brand option.
Read: Bhutan To Be First Country to Go 100% Organic
The Simply Balanced collection is crafted to be free of artificial flavors, colors and preservatives, and avoids high fructose corn syrup. The collection never uses trans fats, is mindful about the amount of sodium in each product, and forty percent of the products are organic – giving guests more of the simple, recognizable ingredients they know and want – and a food label they can understand.
As a wellness brand built on purity and simplicity, Simply Balanced products exclude 105 common food additive ingredients, and the vast majority of the items within the collection are made without GMOs. As part of Target’s commitment to wellness, the Simply Balanced collection will eliminate all GMOs by the end of 2014.
In all, there will be nearly 250 products carrying the brand name, ranging in price from $1 for water to $14.99 for seafood products. Snacks, pasta, drinks, dairy, cereal, and frozen seafood will all be included in the lineup.
This brand is replacing two subsets of the current store-brand Archer Farms: Archer Farms Simply Balanced and Archer Farms Organic. The store will begin rolling out the new products this month.
As consumers continue to voice their opinions with the almighty dollar, corporations have no choice but to respond accordingly. Continue supporting businesses that provide organic, local, and GMO-free products and urge local stores to carry more of these options.
I am leery… Grateful for the attemp… However reading carefully… 40% organic, mostly without GMOs, and the phaseout till 2014… So the product itself, example cereal… A well known product which is built upon GMO ingredients … So who cares if they tweak the rest of the fillers, if the main product itself is garbage… Additionally they are using every marketing buzz word possible.. Simple, balanced… And touting a marketing slogan about its goodness… The problem here is they are selling packaged foods, and in reality wholesome foods are not packaged and until the population gets back to cooking real food they won't be eating real food.
Step in the right direction raising awareness
Sadly, we can't get back to cooking real food when none is available to cook. It's hard to cook corn when we know 80% of it is GMO, and the most of the vegi stands around me get their produce from the same place as the big chains, and have never even heard of GMO.
Yes, I became doubtful when I read: "The Simply Balanced collection is crafted to be free…" Collection? Crafted? It's factory manufactured food, a mass produced product line …
Simply Balanced is a current branded type of Archer Farms. Many of the product offerings are simply the old products in a bright blue new package.
And the reality is that for every jerk who insists that the only "real" food is grown from non-GMO, organic, local, sustainably grown foods which are obvisouly watered with the tears of Italian virgins or unicorns there is a family with five kids who are working poor and cannot find the time to cook such "real" ingredients into a meal after working at least one full job every day, if not more than one.
So lets focus on how this falls short instead of the fact that if Target makes such a change Walmart will have to follow as will hopefully other grocers in the country. Do you see Walmart saying they will change their junk brand to exclude GMOs? Nope. And they are the biggest retailer of organic food in the US. So if they decide to do things, suppliers will fall in line.
I see Angela got a lot of dislikes for pointing out the elephant in the room and boo on you who did it. It's true, MOST people in this world cannot afford to eat fresh foods and that is a shameful commentary on our values in general. There is NO excuse for it. Good, whole, foods should not be a luxury…it should be a right for ALL people. My kid has extreme food allergies which forces us to shop at the co-ops for most of our foods. My 2 daughters and I have Lyme disease, and neither our treatment or Doctor visits (out of state) are covered by insurance (we spend over a grand a year, at least, at the pharmacy alone)…..I will let you all guess which costs us more annually.
Great move forward!
Good for you target. It’s about time a big company stood up to these murderers who make GMO’S I will shop at target and no longer shop at walmart
Nothing to see here, just another money grabbing facade attempt. Once these are in stock you will spend more for less.
exactly if 40 percent is organic that is CERTIFIED organic there shouldnt be any GMOS to begin with duh! Read the label if it does not say NO GMO than it has GMO in it natural, balanced ect all a crock of bull it has to say certified organic to be free of GMO
That's absolutely UNTRUE. FACT : All organic foods are NON-GMO but also FACT: Not all NON-GMO food is organic. There are TONS of conventional foods/ingredients out there that are NON-GMO. That's why there's this organization called The NON-GMO Project that CERTIFIES conventional foods as NON-GMO. Do some damned research.
China and Latin America are still in the dark on this. China just certified GMO food to be imported from Latin America.
Marketing scam. They could've began with treating their employees like humans. They are no different than Walmart with regard to profit through exploitation.
At first, I was ticked when Kashi pledged to be non-gmo by 2015. "Why can't you do it now?!" However, with some thought and balance, I realized that they probably are in contract with farms to buy ingredients. At the end of the day, they are still running a business. They will honor their contracts and then make the switch. In my book, the fact they are phasing it out at all is a move in the right direction. Big changes like that take time in business, usually because of large contracts.
"The collection never uses trans fats, is MINDFUL about the amount of sodium in each product, andFORTY PERCENT of the products are organic – giving guests more of the simple, recognizable ingredients they know and want – and a food label they can understand….As a wellness brand built on purity and simplicity, Simply Balanced products exclude 105 common food additive ingredients, and the VAST MAJORITY of the items within the collection are made without GMOs."
With this kind of vague language and undefined wiggle-room, there had better be some extremely explicit labeling on these products to tell you which of those products are among the forty percent the are organic, which food additive ingredients ARE still being used in 'Simply Balanced' products, and especially, WHICH PRODUCTS STILL DO CONTAIN GMO INGREDIENTS. LIP SERVICE JUST WON'T CUT IT ANY MORE.
I contacted Target and congratulated them on their new policy. Here is the disappointing response that I got from them:
Thanks for sharing your positive comments with us.
Organic products are a growing segment of the food industry, and we've found that guests like you place increased importance on incorporating organic foods into your daily meals. At Target, we are always working to improve our offerings to delight our guests. For this reason, we have increased our organic offerings throughout every area of food at Target.
Regulatory agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as individual state governments work together to make sure all foods are safe including those produced using GMOs or through bioengineering.
Our buyers purchase food products from a number of different vendors, who are required to comply with all United States food laws and labeling regulations established by the USDA and the FDA.
There are currently no labeling requirements by the USDA or FDA to list whether foods have or have not been developed using GMOs and/or genetically engineered ingredients. For this reason, we don't require our vendors to list whether foods manufactured for Target have or haven't been developed using GMOs and/or genetically engineered ingredients.
We follow the guidelines and regulations set by the National Organic Program, under the direction of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). You can find additional information on the guidelines and regulations at http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/NOPhome.html. If you need more information, please calls us at (800) 316-6151 or visit us on Target.com. We are here to help!
We're always looking for ways to improve the shopping experience for you. Your comments really help us make Target even better and I've shared them with the appropriate team. This way, they can see what's working out just right for you.
Thanks for shopping with us. We'll see you again soon at Target.
Sincerely,
Prathibha
Target Guest Relations
http://www.target.com
(800)440-0680