Consumer does Cargill extend bet in no GMO ingredients

Cargill, one of the largest suppliers of foods to wholesale world, bent the trends dictated by consumers and is offering its first products with the seal of guarantee of greater American organization that monitors free of GMO ingredients.
The American multinational negotiates annually milhões tons of products such as corn and soybeans, the most genetically modified volume. But the company is faced with changes in consumer tastes, which passes by a growing distrust in relation to GMO products, common on supermarket shelves for years.
Last week, Cargill announced that it received for the first time the Non-GMO Project, a volunteer organization, for three of its food ingredients. The approval means that companies that sell packaged foods and are customers of Cargill can now put in its products the logo of the project, a butterfly is already widely recognized.
"The demand for non-GMO foods and beverages is booming and Cargill is responding," said Mike Wagner, Director of the American Division of sweeteners and starches of multi. The ingredients that have received the seal are cane sugar, sunflower oil with high oleic acid content and a zero-calorie sweetener made from corn.
"There are no transgenic sugar cane and no transgenic sunflower", says Peter Golbitz of Agromeris, a consulting firm specializing in the natural foods industry. "In a way, Cargill is capitulating to growing consumer fears that there is something to worry about in all foods, not just with foods that can have commercial transgenic varieties," he said.
The sale of products certified as non-GM crops can help improve Cargill''s profit margins, which are in decline in recent years. In an announcement made this year, the company''s Chief Executive, David MacLennan, said the company will continue buying transgenic crops. But it also said: "we are thrilled with the higher value-added opportunities presented by specialist supply chains, such as transgenic products".
The packaged foods with the Non-GMO Project seal started appearing in supermarkets in 2010. Today, over 40000 products are certified, which corresponds to more than $ 19 billion in annual sales, according to project information.