Kellogg’s knows how important GMO labeling is to you. The company’s own website features survey results showing 83% of consumers agree that it’s important to label GMOs. But Kellogg’s has a plan to hide the facts from you.

Before the end of the year, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is poised to require labeling of GMOs on food packaging for the first time ever. But Kellogg’s is not going to use a clear text or a symbol label on its product packaging to indicate that the product contains GMOs. Instead, if the USDA rules allow companies to use them, you will only see a QR code (a square symbol that resembles a bar code) on the packaging that will require you to use your smartphone to interpret. So every time you want to find out if a Kellogg’s product you are considering purchasing was produced with GMOs or not, you will have to try and scan the QR code with your smartphone and then navigate the Kellogg’s site to attempt to find the information.

Tell Kellogg’s to practice what it preaches

put GMO labels in text or a symbol on the package!

Why is Kellogg’s using QR codes instead of clear, on packaging labeling of GMOs?

• Kellogg’s knows that over 100 million Americans do not have a smartphone or cannot afford a reliable broadband connection, and are therefore unable to scan QR codes. These are primarily the low-income, elderly, rural, and minority populations. This suits Kellogg’s just fine. Kellogg’s doesn’t care about these customers’ right to know. The company just wants to hide the fact that they are using GMOs from as many people as possible.

• Kellogg’s knows that a 2017 USDA study found that even the customers who own smartphones had trouble scanning these QR codes more than 85% of the time! The frustration and time waste of their customers trying and failing to scan the QR code apparently does not bother Kellogg’s. After all, the massive QR code failure rate keeps their customers in the dark on whether GMOs are in their products or not.

• Even if you own a smart phone and are able to access a broadband connection in the grocery store, looking up the information once you’ve scanned the QR code is neither quick nor easy. Once you’ve scanned the code and the screen has loaded, Kellogg’s makes the user go through two additional steps by clicking on “more information” and then “GMO disclosure” just so you can find out if that product was produced with GMOs or not. With other companies following Kellogg’s lead, can imagine having to use your phone to scan every food product you buy in order to find out if it is produced using GMOs or not? It would take hours to look up everything in your shopping cart.   

• You’re compromising your online privacy with each search. What if The Kellogg Company captures your phone information for future advertising? Or what if the SmartLabel™ app gets hacked and your information is leaked? Why should you have to put your private information at risk just to look up whether or not a product (or ten or twenty products) has been made using GMOs or not?

Kellogg’s knows that most customers will not put up with this inconvenience, major time drain, and privacy risk involved using QR codes to look up the GMO content of its products. The company and others are intentionally using QR codes instead of on-package text labels to keep this information from as many people as possible.

QR code “labeling” is a cynical sham. It is a way for Kellogg’s to hide GMO content, not disclose it.  It is discriminatory and anti-consumer. Tell Kellogg’s that you will not buy their products until they comm...

Kellogg’s knows the importance of clear, on-package labeling. The company proudly touts whenever its products do not contain GMO ingredients as “Non-GMO Project Verified.” And they do this with a clear label, front and center on the package.  It is only when they are required to reveal GMO ingredients in the products that they resort to the QR code scam.

Tell Kellogg’s to label GMO products where everyone can easily find...

Right on the package!