General Mills Commits to rBST-Free Yogurt
General Mills announces that it has made the commitment to eliminate by August 2009 milk sourced from cows treated with rBST (recombinant bovine somatotropin), a synthetic hormone also referred to as rBGH, in the production of its Yoplait yogurts.
Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Institutes of Health remain fully confident in the safety of products made from milk sourced from cows treated with rBST in accordance with current guidelines, Yoplait is taking the initiative to change its dairy sourcing strategy to provide consumers with the option to choose a category-leading yogurt with milk produced by cows not treated with rBST.
"We estimate that more than 70 percent of our milk is already coming from cows that are not treated with rBST," says Becky O'Grady, General Mills' vice president of marketing for the Yoplait brand. "We are committed to reaching 100 percent no later than August. While the safety of milk from cows treated with rBST is not at issue, our consumers were expressing a preference for milk from cows not treated with rBST -- and we responded."
Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Institutes of Health remain fully confident in the safety of products made from milk sourced from cows treated with rBST in accordance with current guidelines, Yoplait is taking the initiative to change its dairy sourcing strategy to provide consumers with the option to choose a category-leading yogurt with milk produced by cows not treated with rBST.
"We estimate that more than 70 percent of our milk is already coming from cows that are not treated with rBST," says Becky O'Grady, General Mills' vice president of marketing for the Yoplait brand. "We are committed to reaching 100 percent no later than August. While the safety of milk from cows treated with rBST is not at issue, our consumers were expressing a preference for milk from cows not treated with rBST -- and we responded."