What’s considered the most respected newspaper in the world today published the Kraft warning label that a Food Babe reader found in the UK on an imported US box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. I want to thank the NY Times for investigating and broadcasting this label to the world and millions of Americans in their newspaper and online for everyone to see. This is a huge victory in food awareness!
Given all the media coverage since March, it is now becoming blatantly apparent that there are serious concerns with the ingredients in Kraft Mac & Cheese. Everyone who reads the NY Times today will see the 2 warnings:
Warning #1: This Product May Cause Adverse Effects On Activity And Attention In Children (This warning label is required because The US version of Kraft Mac & Cheese has artificial food dyes yellow #5 and yellow #6 which are proven to be linked to hyperactivity in children.)
Warning #2: GMO Declaration: Made from genetically modified wheat. (May contain GMO) (This warning label is required because the US version of Kraft Mac & Cheese contains GMOs.)
There was quite a bit of speculation about this label last week. Many people on the internet questioned if it was real and where it came from. According to the report in the NY Times, in video evidence I posted, and in two other videos here and here, we can now conclude the following:
- The NY Times verified that this is in fact a real label on US Kraft Mac & Cheese sold in the UK.
- We know that Kraft does not label, distribute or export the US version of Mac & Cheese officially. (To echo my quote in The NY Times, I find it extremely bizarre that Kraft had no knowledge of their products being sold and widely available in one of the largest retailers in the world (Tesco) and are trying to pass this off as a black market supply.)
- Kraft has confirmed they do not use GMO wheat. (However, no one to my knowledge has tested the product to verify this 100%, which is important considering the contamination of GMO wheat in Oregon.)
- Kraft customer service confirmed use of other GMOs in their products (see video evidence here).
- Given all the public statements that Kraft has made to the media about this label so far – they have not attempted to refute one important fact – Their product “May Cause Adverse Effects On Activity And Attention In Children.” This is truth they can’t deny.
- Tesco who sells the US version of Kraft Mac & Cheese in their “World Foods” section confirmed the label is placed on by the distributor – Innovative Bites.
- The case is still not solved. THERE IS STILL A MAJOR QUESTION UNANSWERED. No one has been able to get in touch with distributor Innovative Bites (including me) to find out why they used the words “made with genetically modified wheat” on the label.
Lynne Galia, the spokeswoman I met at Kraft headquarters when I delivered thousands of signatures, has still not responded to me directly. She will not answer my emails or my phone calls. She will gladly talk to the NY Times and other news agencies, but not to me or the other 290,000 people I represent who signed a petition asking Kraft to remove artificial food dyes. I find it bizarre that Kraft wouldn’t genuinely want to answer basic questions about their product – especially after I posted this concerning information that could have health implications to millions of people and children.
How can we continue to trust a company like Kraft that is more concerned about making greedy business decisions to keep their market share and paying their executives millions of more dollars year after year, while neglecting enormous public outcry regarding their flagship product?
How can we continue to trust a company that continues to not take responsibility for their product containing petroleum based dyes and GMOs?
How can we continue to trust an American company that reformulates their products without harmful ingredients to our friends overseas but not to us?
How can we continue to trust a company that ignores 290,000 people and is scared to have a basic civilized conversation?
I want to leave you with a clarification note I received from Flo (who is definitely a hero for finding this label!) She would like to share her unedited thoughts about Kraft Mac & Cheese here:
I’ve been eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for a long time now and have grown to enjoy the product, much like many others I’m sure. However with these recent discoveries of the yellow dyes and their effects as well as the GM wheat and GMOs, I’ve become very concerned. I have continued to eat Kraft macaroni and cheese in moderation knowing the effects it may have, however I’m certainly considering stopping if the ingredients aren’t changed. I’m worried about the long term effects it may have and really hope that Kraft can find a way to alter the ingredients, making them safer and healthier, without it having an effect on the taste of the product. Mainly, I’m concerned that children around the world may be eating this without knowing the effects it could have. Also, I would like to thank the New York Times for publishing the photo and not dismissing it as fake. ~ Flo Wrightson Cross
If you haven’t already, please sign this petition, continue to vote with your dollars, and spread this knowledge about Kraft with your friends and family.
Thank you everyone for your support. We are winning this battle.
Food Babe
way to go foodbabe!!!! xxoo
“Kraft: Stop Using Dangerous Food Dyes in Our Mac & Cheese”
How about stop buying Kraft products? Easy as that.
The thing is, Kraft is a HUGE company. To completely stop buying ANY of their products may prove difficult. Many companies use the same ingredients or are manufactured by the same in the same facilities, then pay to have their label used instead of the major company. They’re shifty. While I agree with you 100%, I am simply saying it may involve more than just picking up an alternative package. Time and research may have to be involved. I for one, will stick to my organic products and read the ingredients lists. The fewer the better 🙂
I’ve actually stopped ALL processed food in my home altogether. I buy fruits, veggies, olive oil, butter, brown rice (I just prefer brown), and only foods with SINGLE INGREDIENTS. We lived MILLENIA without processed foods and it’s only been popular in the last 100 years. The job of the processed food industry is to MAKE YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN’T EAT WITHOUT THEIR PRODUCTS. So, NO, it ISN’T difficult to eat if you drop ALL KRAFT products.
That is awesome! We have done the same the last 6 months. After an accidental overdose of red dye at superbowl, we discovered that my daughter was allergic to basically anything artificial or overprocessed. It has made a world of difference in her behavior, bedwetting, and night terrors. Her learning delays are almost all caught up in this short time and our lives are starting to resemble what they did before she was born. The last 5.5 years have been such a challenge and lots of tears! I wish I had discovered this earlier. Poor baby had formula! No wonder she seemed like a lunatic she was being fed the very thing she was allergic to from the moment she came into this world! I hope to spread the awareness to others so that they can help their children. Whole foods is how God intended for us to eat.
yes, do not purchase their poison.
Get ’em Girl!!
The upshot of the NYT piece is that no one seems to know how this label got on this product and that Kraft does not use GM wheat in their Mac and cheese. The Times charitably called this label “ambiguous”. We certainly don’t need an ambiguous labeling scheme which will unnecessarily spread chaos and panic in the food supply chain.
In many European countries, labeling is MANDATORY, so they had no choice but to label it if they wish to sell in a country with mandatory labeling laws.
Can we step back from this a little bit further? Yes, we should know exactly what it is we are purchasing. Yes, all companies should be responsible for accurately reporting their ingredients. They should divulge everything. HOWEVER.. Seriously. This is not food. Look at it. It’s fluorescent orange powder that tastes like salt. It doesn’t look or smell like food. I don’t care WHO says this is good for human consumption. Make better choices when it comes to things you’re putting in your child’s belly. This stuff isn’t cheese. Mountain Dew doesn’t come from mountains. Don’t buy prepackaged crap. No rocket science involved.
How true.I.I do not buy ready meals,or eat meat.As an 87year old I agree with you entirely
Rock on Michelle! You are totally right. I know that sometimes it is hard to find foods your kids will want to eat or hard to buy healthy foods on a budget. But seriously, since my husband I cut out everything packaged and processed we feel AMAZING. Not to mention, veggies start to taste better when you start to get used to REAL food again. It is worth it.
You hit it right on the nose!
Check out Snopes http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/kraftgmo.asp
snoops disputes the legitimacy of the article based on the illegality of gmo wheat, saying how could they have obtained gmo wheat when it is not legal anywhere. However, it has now come out that quantities of illegal gmo wheat have been raised in Oregon, and in addition, shipments of wheat sold to China and Japan have been refused because they tested positive for being gmo. So, there goes the validity of snoops saying ‘mostly false’!
That is an outright LIE! The Japanese and Koreans have suspended shipments of wheat pending investigation of the so far isolated event in Oregon. No GM wheat has been found in any shipments. Why do you people just invent information? Astonishing.
Alan, you are right – we need to stay factual please.
But I can understand the concern, given the recent GMO rice found being imported into Turkey. To me the US food system seems like a ship without a rudder, heading for disaster. The government bodies charged with protection and safety are absent, and laws are being passed which absolve the bio-tech companies from any responsibility – this is worrying – the world is worried – and I can understand consumers negative reactions to not wanting to ingest GMO material until further testing is done. No independant testing is allowed without the permission of the big ag companies. In any other industry this would be completely unheard of!!
Joe, it is fair to have rational concerns. The case of GM rice in Turkey needs to be carefully investigated in order to assuage people’s worries. I think there is much more to this story as GM rice has never been approved for production anywhere.
Your point about the law absolving seed companies is misleading. That law stems from the cae of RR alfalfa which was approved for planting by the USDA. A green group sued asking for more environmental impact studies and an activist judge stepped in and enjoined farmers from growing or harvesting their crops until the case had been adjudicated. The Supreme court had to step in and overturn the judge saying that it was judicial overreach. The law you mentioned simply protects farmers from such confusion.
How could GMO companies prevent Anybody from testing their product as much as they want. The product is freely available on the market either as seed or grain. The fact is hundreds of independent tests have been done and most of them have been torn to shreds by peer review e.g. Seralini and Vendemois .
I wish it were that simple.
The law has been jumped on by environmentalists – but I don’t really regard it as the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ as Monsanto must stop selling seeds if a product comes under investigation. However, it sets a strange precedent – to say that once it is in the ground, it cannot be affected by court decisions. Considering the scale of GM crops, this could be disasterous if serious concenquences are found. I can’t imagine any other industry having such a dangerous absence of product recall structure.
The correct approach would be the USDA taking responsibility – with any problematic crop being burnt and the farmers being compensated for their loses either by the govt or by the seller of the seeds. This would stop both land and human contamination and would encourage more responsibility and thorough testing on the part of the seed companies. As it stands now, the current setup encourages wrecklessness.
And as for independent testing, I’m afraid that the patent holders absolutely have control as to what makes it into the public domain. There is a reason that independant research so far was ‘torn to shreds’ in peer review. There have been many scientists who have spoken up about being theatened for going public, the most famous of which was Arpad Pusztai. He was a very well respected university researcher in Scotland before he dared to try to publish his research on GM potatoes. He was fired and his research shelved.
There are plenty of examples, even from pro gmo scientists: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/20crop.html?_r=0
Add to this the pressure on scientic journals to print ‘advertiser friendly’ studies and you can see that the truth is not easy to come by. You may question this all as impossible, but it is happening. What we see is a virtual blackout of anything negative. This is what worries me the most. Imagine if the car industry or air industry behaved in this way!
I hope I have inspired you to do some further research
The GMO wheat is not the problem – it is the food dyes that are proven to cause hyperactivity in children. Snopes is not infallible.
Since when is being hyperactive become a bad thing? I feel sad for all the kids not being allowed to be kids. OMG my kid is hyper, lets not feed him KD and give him ritalin instead!
Yeah cuz that worked out great for me, I wish that my parents had just let me be a kid, instead of freaking out cuz I was hyperactive. Maybe get me involved in sports or let me work off the energy.
Kids aren’t hyper cuz of a food dye, they are hyper cuz of lazy parenting and people letting video games babysit their kids instead of going out to play catch with them or let them burn off all that energy.
I resent that remark. You may be a product of hyperactivity & it sounds like you are blaming your parents. Sorry you feel that way. I have an ADHD child who is very hyper. Has nothing to do with being a lazy parent, but a neurologic disorder. Thankfully we live in a wooded area & he is able to run & roam (per my set boundaries) as much as he wants to. I do however agree with you that t.v. & video games do not help. Also, I do not allow my children to eat that nasty Mac & cheese. The less ingredients, the better. Regardless of the debate of food coloring & hyperactivity, why would you want to pump your children with all those preservatives?
Ridiculous. Yes, kids should be energetic and full of life, and be fully allowed to express themselves – but these food dyes cause neurological disorders that lead to abnormal behaviour. Would you say the same if there was crack in the Mac Cheese?
“Oh, little Johnny’s fine today – hasn’t slept for three days. but he’s just a regular happy kid!!! ”
Or maybe it’s the Crack ‘n’ Cheese, and maybe we shouldn’t feed that junk to him – dyes or no dyes??
To be targeting kraft mac and cheese about the yellow food dye is kind of being blown out of proportion in my opinion, many processed foods contain it for example; Desserts and sweets: ice cream, ice pops and popsicles, confectionery and hard candy (such as Gummy Bears, Peeps marshmallow treats, etc.), cotton candy, instant puddings and gelatin (such as Jell-O), cake mixes, pastries (such as Pillsbury pastries), custard powder, marzipan, biscuits and cookies.
Beverages: soft drinks (such as Mountain Dew), energy and sports drinks, powdered drink mixes (such as Kool-Aid), fruit cordials, and flavored/mixed alcoholic beverages.
Snacks: flavored corn chips (such as Doritos, nachos, etc.), chewing gum, popcorn (both microwave and cinema-popped), and potato chips.
Condiments and spreads: jam, jelly (including mint jelly), marmalade, mustard, horseradish, pickles (and other products containing pickles such as tartar sauce and dill pickle dip), and processed sauces.
Other processed foods: cereal (such as corn flakes, muesli, etc.), instant or “cube” soups), rices
(like paella, risotto, etc.), noodles (such as some varieties of Kraft Dinner) and pureed fruit. So it is actually a popular ingredient in many foods. If you have the ability and money to go all natural all the power to you but I will continue to eat KD and some of these other foods lol
Thank you for making this world a safer and healthier place for all of us!
Food companies now are adding carrageenan to RAW chicken. WHY?????
The alphabet government agencies are NOT protecting U.S. citizens.
Local Farmers laugh at the Organic label. “We are beyond Organic,” is the slogan of many farmers who are truely Organic. By the way, who sets the standards for the Organic label?
The naturalists are encouraging everyone to grow their own herbs and vegetables. There are many creative ways to grow veggies and herbs within limited apartment spaces. The future is to grow your own or find local farmers who don’t use poison pesticides/herbicides. It is all about making people aware that the majority of health issues stem from what they eat and we are fighting to allow people to make their on choices.
By the way, I am passionate about this issue because I did go on an exclusive fast food diet for a week and I got ill. I gained weight also. I did the experiment more than once because you cannot prove the illness was from the fast food with only one example. It took me 3 times before coming to the conclusion that for some people, fast food is poison. Additionally, you have not seen the people I have seen in the poor areas of town. Something bad is going on, much worse than any horror movie to have people walking around with their legs bloated and skin soars covering their body and braces on their feet and legs as they limp along. I see these people in the Pharmacy, so they are under a Doctors care. I have never seen anything as horrific as these sick people. What is happening?… I think we know.
Way to go food babe! Just wondering… But, who are or is this innovative bites that supposedly did the labels? I tried looking them up on the web and nothing.
The question here is that, did Monsanto and regulators knew they sold the defective wheat to other countries even if it is illegal to practice that?
It doesn’t take the rocket scientist to conclude that Monsanto to every extent, are absolute aware of their illegal practice of growing and spread by cross-pollinate the wheat with a Mother nature grown wheat. Once Monsanto felt they are being the gods over this world, they won’t let it go. Money is practically their paganism religion right now.
Don’t insult the pagans like that!
Great!
There is no GM wheat in the US food supply. Period. Some food products imported from China may contain it, but no commercial wheat grown in the US is GM. GM wheat has NOT been productionalized in the US. And, everyone has known that artificial colors are bad for you forever. Did ANYONE think that the color of KM&C was natural? Puh-leeze! You act that this random label article is a reason to suddenly shun a product you shouldn’t have been eating anyway for its lack of nutritional value alone. But a label with one OBVIOUS statement and one OUTRIGHT LIE and you’re all up in arms. Get a grip, people.
EXCELLENT. This.
You are correct about GMO wheat but by the end of this decade that will no longer be true!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/opinion/we-need-gmo-wheat.html?_r=0
It all comes out in the end…. I would love to hear more about the public response to this news in the UK
How can snopes.com claim this is mostly false???? http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/kraftgmo.asp
And that’s like listening to Obama telling the truth! Don’t believe a word they say. If it’s altered and it says GMO it’s not right or good for you. It’s just that simple, Snopes is wrong half the time and there are other places to do your research that are better. DO NOT RELY on one source like Snopes!!!!
i eat annie’s mac n cheese – organic – if everyone would stop buying all the bad products they would get the message and change it. kraft’s mac n cheese is just one of THOUSANDS of products you should STOP buying! you might have to do w/out some things but you would be so much healthier! we, the people, need to be strong and stand our ground for what we buy to eat.
Who even eats the powdered Mac & Cheese?
Thank you, Food Babe. I am grateful to you for all your hard work and for spreading awareness. It is a wonderful thing that the NY Times posted this.
Side note: snopes is not a reliable resource for anyone looking to prove or disprove anything.
I am banning GMO from my diet. I have NEVER before been conscious of what eat until I educated myself to the dangers of GMO and Glysophates. Yesterday buying groceries I ended up not buying 10 items which I use to buy on a regular basis, only because there GMO.I will continue to BAN GMO until GMO food is BANNED. Labeling GMO will do no good, for the uninformed shopper. Be it kids or adults. The only way to stop GMO, from Harming citizens is to BAN GMO food.
Way to go Cathy!
In your Kraft Cheese comparison, it lists Cheddar as an ingredient in the Kraft product. I do not think “Milk, Cheese culture, Salt. Enzymes” qualifies it as ‘Cheddar cheese’. And having tasted the US version, a tasteless processed cheese which passes as ‘Cheddar ‘ over there, I come to the conclusion this is wilful misselling.
Monsanto is a criminal company that needs to be disbande for the good of mankind.
The author states: “How can we continue to trust a company like Kraft that is more concerned about making greedy business decisions to keep their market share and paying their executives millions of more dollars year after year, while neglecting enormous public outcry regarding their flagship product?How can we continue to trust a company that continues to not take responsibility for their product containing petroleum based dyes and GMOs? How can we continue to trust an American company that reformulates their products without harmful ingredients to our friends overseas but not to us?”
Answer: We CAN’T. They are only concerned about the bottom line. Our health, as consumers, is a NON issue to these people. These companies say that there is no evidence that gmo is bad for people. What is really interesting is that the big companies that are gmo producers flat-out say that there is no need to test the items to see if there are any problems because the gmo items are equivalent to the actual food items. They have ‘forbidden’ anyone to analyze the items in a lab and report the findings. So we don’t have any proof that these things are dangerous because the company behind it all won’t let any testing be done. We are supposed to take their word on it and trust them. Do they really deserve our trust simply because they say so?
Did anyone see the kraft organic mac n cheese package that they introduced a few years back? Read the back of the box. They don’t take the issue seriously at all. Here”s what the back of the box states” You look awfully cool holding this box. Organic is so in. In fact, people from New York all the way to Paris can’t stop talking about it. Which puts you, standing there holding your USDA-certified organic macaroni & cheese on the gooey cheesy cutting edge. Congratulations. You knew you loved kraft macaroni & cheese organic way before everyone else did, you trendsetter, you.” It’s all some big joke to them. Our health concerns are also a big joke to them.
Kraft has chosen not to include gmo ingredients in products to other countries because those countries won’t buy their products if they contain gmo ingredients. So they change the ingredients or they simply change the label. We can also participate in not buying these items. Please vote with your wallet. Stop buying ALL products that contain gmo from ALL companies that participate.
Hello Food Baby and everyone who put an effort and time to address this. I’m so proud of Vani and her being so passionate about what she’s doing. I personally never bought Kraft foods. We eat organic foods for more than 23 years now and I’m a European and was very aware of what is going on with American Food production. I have been always concern what my kids eating when they are away from home (occasional school lunches, having sleepovers, parties food, eating out with others…) I remember times when my kids were school age and have their friends in our house and those kids were offered my organic meals… well, they mostly didn’t like it. And when I would ask what would you like?.. the most answers were “macaroni and cheese”.
Well, I admire you Vani. Please keep fighting for our kids. Thanks.
Thanks Irina!
This is so dumb…if you don’t like the product…don’t buy it. No one is forcing you to eat Kraft Mac & Cheese.
I just passed it along to CNN for Anderson Cooper to check out 🙂
Hurrah! In the end I got a blog from where I be able to really obtain useful data regarding my study and knowledge.
How much mac and cheese are you eating? I doubt that one or two boxes a year are any where near as bad as breathing.
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It’s no wonder our children are going zoo at home and school. They all think they must have Kraft Mac and Cheese–guess what—we can and will find a find a food product that is more safe for the ones we love.
As always, so glad I make my own. How hard is it to cook the mac then add the butter & milk, but then add real fresh cheese & stir? GEEZE!
ALL wheat is genetically modified. Not modern genetic mutation but back in the infancy of the science, in tthe 1960s. You cannot obtain nonGMO wheat nor the seeds. Read the book “Wheat Belly” for more info.
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heres a novel idea… why don’t you make your own ‘Mac & Cheese’ ?
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