The new non-GMO formulations of Original Cheerios and Grape Nuts might be made without ingredients from genetically engineered crops, but they also come with fewer vitamins - although brand owners General Mills and Post Foods won’t say why. Post Foods’ new non-GMO Grape Nuts (click here ) no longer include Vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin B12 or vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)*, while the new non-GMO Original Cheerios no longer have Riboflavin on the ingredients list (the old version has 25% of the daily value in a 28g serving while the new version has 2% of the DV). The old version has 25% of the daily value in a 28g serving while the new version only just 2% of the DV. The companies declined to explain the vitamin loss to Food Navigator, but the reason likely has to do with the difficulty of sourcing vitamins from non-genetically modified sources.
– The makers of Cheerios and Grape Nuts hope to win over health-conscious consumers by ditching genetically modified ingredients in their cereals. The problem is that Food Navigator read the fine print on the new boxes and found that each has fewer vitamins. With Cheerios, for instance, the cereal went from providing 25% of the daily value of vitamin B2 (riboflavin) to 2%. Or as a professor of crop science puts it, the cereal "went from being a major source of vitamin B2 to being almost zip." Grape Nuts, meanwhile, no longer has vitamins A, D, B12, and B2. What's going on? Neither General Mills nor Post offered an explanation, "but the reason likely has to do with the difficulty of sourcing vitamins from non-genetically modified sources," says LiveScience. For example, vitamins are often produced using micro-organisms kept in fermentation tanks that are fed "feed stock" that comes from crops such as corn; it's not always easy to certify that the stock is also GMO-free. (In other genetically modified news, click to read about a new potato.)