Price Chopper has learned that manufacturers will no longer ship 3,000 products to Vermont because they will not have a GMO label. The grocery store stopped receiving shipments of many food items beginning last Friday when Vermont’s GMO labeling law went into effect.
Coke was one of the first manufacturers to announce last week that it would stop sending some products to Vermont. Pepsi, Coca-Cola’s main competitor, is following suit. Also on the list of items that Price Chopper said that they will no longer receive are Del Monte fruits, some Hostess products, some Chicken of the Sea, Sabra Hummus, some Heinz Ketchup, Sage Valley nuts, Bob Evans foods, Louisiana Fish Fry products, Sea Gold Seafood and some Starbucks products. “To avoid multiple labeling changes, some lower-volume brands and packages we offer within our broad portfolio could be temporarily unavailable in Vermont,” Coca-Cola Co. spokesman Ben Sheidler told Bloomberg News. The world’s largest soft-drink company said that its biggest sellers—including Coca-Cola Classic, Diet Coke and Coke Zero—will still be available, complete with new labeling. But for smaller brands, Sheidler says
the company is working out how to restructure product packaging to comply with the new law. Coca-Cola sells more than 100 different beverage brands in the U.S. including Mello Yello, Odwalla, Dasani, Honest Tea, Fuze,Minute Maid and many more.
Hundreds of other manufacturers are also included they said. However, regardless of the
problems which have arisen regarding the new law, Vermont lawmakers celebrated the first in the nation GMO labeling law on the Statehouse lawn in Montpelier. Gov. Peter Shumlin
along with Congressman Peter Welch and Senator Bernie Sanders headlined the event.