Your original Cheerios cereal just got a whole lot healthier.
According to the Associated Press, America's favorite plain cereal will soon be free of genetically modified ingredients.
The Minneapolis-based company announced on the company website on Thursday that it has began producing GMO-free cereal several weeks ago. The new change is reportedly based on "consumer demand."
The AP reported that the boxes will be labeled as "Not Made With Genetically Modified Ingredients," despite not being official certification. Labels will also inform customers on the amount of GMO ingredients present.
"It's the unique and simple nature of original Cheerios that made this possible - and even that required significant investment over nearly a year," the company said in a statment, according to the Huffington Post. "Cheerios' principal ingredient has always been whole grain oats, and there are no GMO oats. We use just a small amount of cornstarch in cooking, and just one gram of sugar per serving for taste. So we were able to change how we source and handle ingredients to ensure that the corn starch for original Cheerios comes only from non-GMO corn, and our sugar is only non-GMO pure cane sugar."
According to Mike Siemienas, the company spokesman, the change will not apply to all flavors. Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and Multi Grain Cheerios will reportedly remain the same.
"For our other cereals, the widespread use of GM seed in crops such as corn, soy, or beet sugar would make reliably moving to non-GM ingredients difficult, if not impossible," the website stated.
Siemienas said the originals are easier to change because their main ingredients are oats. Corn starch used in the cereal was genetically modified, but the oats were not. The company will replace cornstarch and sugar to produce a GMO-free product.
Green America called for General Mills to produce Cheerios GMO-free after being flooded with comments on the topic on the Cheerios Facebook page. Todd Larsen, Green America's corporate responsibility director, called the change a victory for the company.
"Original Cheerios in its famous yellow box will now be non-GMO and this victory sends a message to all food companies that consumers are increasingly looking for non-GMO products and companies need to meet that demand," Larsen said in a press release.
