GMO Food List: US Brands Named for Genetically Engineered Ingredients

If you are looking for a list of American grocery brands that use genetically engineered (GE, often called GMO) ingredients, the one below is a historical snapshot rather than a current shopping guide. It was compiled by anti-GMO campaigners around the year 2000 and names hundreds of products, from infant formula to soda. The reason it is so long is simple: most US corn, soybeans, canola, cotton and sugar beets are grown from GE seed, and those crops supply the corn syrup, soy lecithin, vegetable oils and sugar found in almost every processed food.

Today you no longer need an activist list. Since 1 January 2022, US food makers have had to disclose bioengineered ingredients under a federal standard, with some important exceptions explained below. This page keeps the original brand list, reorganised and annotated, and adds what has changed since and what the science says.

Where this list came from and how old it is

The list circulated widely on blogs in the early 2010s, including Shift Frequency, from where it reached this site in 2013. Its contents point to an earlier origin. It names Philip Morris as the parent of Kraft and Nabisco, a corporate structure that existed only around 2000, and it lists companies that have since been sold, merged or closed, such as Bestfoods, Aurora Foods, Interstate Bakeries and Keebler under Flowers Industries. Several products, including Surge soda, Fruitopia and the Squeeze It drinks, have long been discontinued.

In other words, the list records which brands campaigners believed contained GE ingredients a quarter of a century ago. Many recipes, owners and labels have changed since then. Use it as a guide to the kinds of products that tend to contain GE-derived ingredients, not as proof about what is on the shelf today.

Why GE ingredients are in so many foods

Very few GE foods are eaten whole. Instead, a handful of commodity crops are processed into ingredients that turn up everywhere:

• Corn becomes corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, corn starch, maltodextrin and corn oil.
• Soybeans become soybean oil, soy lecithin (a common emulsifier in chocolate and baked goods) and soy protein.
• Canola and cotton supply cooking oils used in snacks, dressings and mayonnaise.
• Sugar beets supply a large share of US sugar.

According to the US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, more than 90% of US corn and upland cotton acreage is now planted with GE varieties, and 96% of soybean acres used herbicide-tolerant seed in 2025. A Congressional Research Service report gives a similar figure, about 90%, for canola and sugar beets. That is why breakfast cereal, crackers, frozen dinners and soft drinks all appear below: the GE content usually comes from oil, syrup, sugar or lecithin rather than the main ingredient.

The brand list, by food category

Brands are shown with the parent company named in the original list (often no longer accurate). Product names are listed alphabetically.

Baby food and infant formula

• Nabisco (Philip Morris): Arrowroot Teething Biscuits.
• Carnation infant formulas (Nestlé): Alsoy, Follow-Up, Follow-Up Soy, Good Start.
• Enfamil (Mead Johnson): 22, A.R., Lacto Free, Low Iron, Next Step (soy and milk-based), Nutramigen, Pro-Sobee, with Iron.
• Isomil and Similac (Abbott Labs): Isomil Soy, Isomil Soy for Diarrhea; Similac Alimentum, Lactose Free, Low Iron, with Iron.

Baking mixes and chocolate for baking

• Aunt Jemima (Quaker): Buttermilk and Complete Pancake & Waffle Mixes, Cornbread Mix, Easy Mix Coffee Cake.
• Betty Crocker (General Mills): cookie mixes (Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate Chunk, Peanut Butter, Sugar); muffin mixes (Apple Streusel, Banana Nut, Blueberry, Chocolate Chip, Lemon Poppy Seed, Wild Blueberry); quick bread mixes (Banana, Cinnamon Streusel, Cranberry Orange, Gingerbread, Lemon Poppy Seed); pancake mixes and Pie Crust Mix.
• Bisquick (General Mills): Original, Reduced Fat, and Shake ’n Pour pancake mixes (plain, Blueberry, Buttermilk).
• Duncan Hines (Aurora Foods): Blueberry, Blueberry Crumb and Chocolate Chip muffin mixes, plus Kellogg’s All-Bran Apple Cinnamon and Blueberry muffin mixes.
• Hungry Jack (Pillsbury): Buttermilk and Extra Light & Fluffy pancake mixes.
• Jiffy: Blueberry, Corn and Raspberry muffin mixes; Pie Crust Mix.
• Mrs. Butterworth’s (Aurora Foods): Buttermilk and Complete pancake mixes.
• Pepperidge Farm (Campbell’s): Buttermilk Pancake Mix.
• Pillsbury: Hot Roll Mix, Gingerbread, and quick bread and muffin mixes (Banana, Blueberry, Chocolate Chip, Cranberry, Lemon Poppyseed, Nut).
• Baker’s (Kraft): German Sweet, Semi-Sweet, Unsweetened and White baking chocolate.
• Hershey’s: Milk Chocolate Chips, Mini Kisses, Semi-Sweet Baking Chips.
• Nestlé Toll House: Butterscotch Chips, Milk Chocolate Chips, Semi-Sweet Chips and Baking Bars, White Chocolate.

Bread

• Holsum (Interstate Bakeries): 12 Grain, Buttertop White and Wheat, Holsum Thin Sliced, Home Pride, Roman Meal, Round Top.
• Pepperidge Farm (Campbell’s): 7 Grain, 9 Grain, 100% Whole Wheat, Cinnamon Swirl, Crunchy Oat, Hearty Slices, Light Oatmeal, Light Side, Light Wheat, Oatmeal, Wheat, Whole Wheat; Club Rolls, Hoagie Rolls, Sandwich Buns, Soft Dinner Rolls.
• Thomas’ (Bestfoods): English muffins (Blueberry, Cinnamon Raisin, Honey Wheat, Maple French Toast, Oat Bran, Original); Toast-r-Cakes (Blueberry, Corn Muffins).
• Wonder (Interstate Bakeries): 100% Stoneground Wheat, Beefsteak Rye, Buttermilk, Country Grain, Fat Free Multigrain, Hamburger Buns, Light Wheat, Premium Potato, Thin Sandwich, White Sandwich Bread.

Breakfast bars, pastries and waffles

• Kellogg’s: Eggo waffles (Apple Cinnamon, Banana Bread, Blueberry, Buttermilk, Cinnamon Toast, Homestyle, Nutri-Grain Multi Grain and Whole Wheat, Strawberry); Fruit-Full Squares; Nutri-Grain Bars, Squares and Twists; Pop-Tarts and Pop-Tarts Snack Stix.
• Nabisco: Fruit & Grain Bars.
• Nature Valley (General Mills): Cinnamon, Oats & Honey and Peanut Butter granola bars.
• Pillsbury: Toaster Scrambles and Toaster Strudels; Hungry Jack frozen waffles (Buttermilk, Homestyle).
• Quaker: Aunt Jemima frozen waffles (Blueberry, Buttermilk), Chewy Granola Bars, Fruit & Oatmeal Bars.

Breakfast cereal

• General Mills: Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, Basic 4, Brown Sugar & Oat Total, Cheerios, Cinnamon Grahams, Corn Chex, Count Chocula, French Toast Crunch, Frosted Cheerios, Frosted Wheaties, Golden Grahams, Honey Nut Chex, Kix, Lucky Charms, Multi-Grain Cheerios, Reese’s Puffs, Total, Trix, Wheat Chex, Wheaties.
• Kellogg’s: All-Bran, Apple Jacks, Complete Oat Bran and Wheat Bran, Corn Flakes, Corn Pops, Cracklin’ Oat Bran, Crispix, Froot Loops (including Marshmallow Blasted), Frosted Flakes, Honey Crunch Corn Flakes, Just Right Fruit & Nut, Product 19, Raisin Bran, Raisin Bran Crunch, Rice Krispies, Smacks, Smart Start, Special K.
• Mother’s cereals (Quaker): Groovy Grahams, Harvest Oat Flakes (plain and with Apples & Almonds), Honey Round Ups, Peanut Butter Bumpers, Toasted Oat Bran; Country Inn Specialties.
• Post (Kraft): Alpha-Bits, Bran Flakes, Cinna-Crunch, Cocoa and Fruity Pebbles, Fruit & Fibre, Golden Crisp, Grape-Nuts Flakes and O’s, Honey Bunches of Oats, Honey Comb, Honey Nut Shredded Wheat, Post Selects (Banana Nut Crunch, Blueberry Morning, Cranberry Almond, Great Grains), Raisin Bran, Waffle Crisp.
• Quaker: 100% Natural Granola, Cap’n Crunch (including Crunch Berries and Peanut Butter Crunch), Cinnamon Life, Life, Oat Bran, Toasted Oatmeal and Toasted Oatmeal Honey Nut.

Chocolate, candy and cocoa

• Hershey’s (including US Cadbury lines): Almond Joy, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Fruit & Nut and Roast Almond, Kisses, Kit Kat, Milk Chocolate, Mounds, Mr. Goodbar, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Special Dark, Symphony, York Peppermint Pattie; chocolate, Special Dark and strawberry syrups.
• Kraft: Toblerone.
• Mars: 3 Musketeers, M&M’s, Milky Way, Snickers, Twix.
• Nestlé: 100 Grand, Butterfinger, Chunky, Crunch, Milk Chocolate, Nesquik (chocolate and strawberry); Carnation hot cocoa mixes (Double Chocolate, Marshmallow Madness, Milk Chocolate, Mini Marshmallow, No Sugar, Rich Chocolate).
• Swiss Miss (ConAgra): Chocolate Sensation, Marshmallow Lovers (regular and fat free), Milk Chocolate, No Sugar Added.

Condiments, sauces and salsa

• Chi-Chi’s (Hormel): Fiesta Salsa.
• Del Monte: Ketchup.
• Heinz: Chili Sauce, Cocktail Sauce, Heinz 57 Steak Sauce, Ketchup (regular and no salt).
• Hellmann’s (Bestfoods): Light, Low-Fat and Real Mayonnaise.
• Hunt’s (ConAgra): Ketchup; KC Masterpiece Original BBQ sauce, Garlic & Herb and Honey Teriyaki marinades.
• Kraft: Char Grill, Honey Hickory and Thick & Spicy BBQ sauces; Kraft Mayonnaise; Miracle Whip.
• Nabisco: A.1. Steak Sauce.
• Old El Paso (Pillsbury): Garden Pepper and Thick & Chunky salsas, Picante Sauce, Taco Sauce.
• Open Pit (Vlasic): BBQ sauces.
• Ortega (Nestlé): Salsa Prima (3 Bell Pepper, Homestyle, Roasted Garlic), Taco Sauce, Thick & Chunky Salsa.
• Pace (Campbell’s): Chunky Salsa, Picante Sauce.
• Tostitos salsa (Frito-Lay/PepsiCo): All Natural, All Natural Thick & Chunky, Restaurant Style, Roasted Garlic.

Cookies

• Delicious Brands and Frookies (Parmalat): Animal Crackers, Butterfinger, English Toffee Heath and Skippy Peanut Butter cookies, Fat Free Vanilla Wafers, Fig Bars, Ginger Snaps, Honey and Cinnamon Grahams, Oatmeal, Sugar-Free Duplex; Frookies Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate, Frookwich sandwich cookies, Funky Monkeys, Lemon Wafers, Peanut Butter Chunk.
• Famous Amos (Keebler): Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, and Chocolate, Oatmeal Macaroon, Peanut Butter and Vanilla sandwich cookies.
• Keebler: Chips Deluxe, Country Style Oatmeal, Crème and Chocolate Filled Wafers, Droxies, E.L. Fudge, Fudge Shoppe range, Golden Vanilla Wafers, Graham crackers (Chocolate, Cinnamon Crisp, Honey Low Fat, Originals), Sandies, Soft Batch, Vienna Fingers; Sesame Street cookies (Cookie Monster, Cookie Pals, grahams, sandwich cookies).
• Nabisco: Barnum’s Animal Crackers, Café Crème cookies, Chips Ahoy!, Family Favorites Oatmeal, Famous Wafers, Fig Newtons and other Newtons, Fudge Covered Mystic Sticks, Honey Maid grahams, Lorna Doone, Nilla Wafers, Nutter Butter, Oreo, Pecanz Shortbread, SnackWell’s range, Teddy Grahams.
• Pepperidge Farm (Campbell’s): Bordeaux, Brussels, Chesapeake, Chessmen, Geneva, Ginger Men, Lemon Nut, Milano and Mint Milano, Nantucket, Raspberry Chantilly, Salzburg, Sausalito, Shortbread, Strawberry Verona, Sugar, and soft-baked Oatmeal Raisin.

Crackers

• Keebler: Club, Harvest Bakery, Munch ’Ems, Snax Stix, Toasteds, Town House, Wheatables, Zesta Saltines.
• Nabisco: Better Cheddars, Cheese Nips, Premium Saltines, Ritz and Ritz Snack Mix, Sociables, Swiss Cheese and Vegetable Flavor Crisps, Triscuit, Uneeda Biscuits, Waverly, Wheat Thins, Wheatsworth; Red Oval Farms Stoned Wheat Thins and Crisp ’N Light.
• Pepperidge Farm (Campbell’s): Butter Thins, Cracker Trio and Quartet, Goldfish and Goldfish Snack Mix, Hearty Wheat, Snack Stix (Pumpernickel, Sesame, Three Cheese).
• Sunshine: Cheez-It (original, reduced fat, White Cheddar, Party Mix), Krispy Saltines.

Frozen meals, pizza and potatoes

• ConAgra: Banquet (Chicken Nugget Meal, Fried Chicken, Pepperoni Pizza Meal, Pot Pies, Salisbury Steak); Healthy Choice meals; Kid Cuisine; Marie Callender’s meals and pot pies.
• Heinz: Budget Gourmet; Ore-Ida potatoes (Crispy Crunchies, Fast Fries, Hash Browns, Potato Wedges, Shoestrings, Steak Fries, Tater Tots, Zesties); Rosetto ravioli and stuffed shells; Weight Watchers Smart Ones.
• Nestlé: Lean Cuisine (Café Classics, Everyday Favorites, Hearty Portions, Skillet Sensations); Stouffer’s family-style and Hearty Portions meals.
• Others: Green Giant meal kits and rice dishes (Pillsbury); Swanson dinners including Hungry-Man (Vlasic/Campbell’s); Voilà! skillet meals (Birds Eye); Celeste (Aurora Foods), Tombstone (Kraft) and Totino’s (Pillsbury) frozen pizzas.

Energy bars and drink mixes

• PowerBar (Nestlé): Apple Cinnamon, Banana, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Mocha, Oatmeal Raisin, Peanut Butter, Vanilla Crisp, Wild Berry; Harvest bars.
• Carnation Instant Breakfast (Nestlé): Café Mocha, Classic Chocolate, Creamy Milk Chocolate, French Vanilla, Strawberry.

Canned and shelf-stable meals

• Chef Boyardee (ConAgra): ABC’s & 123’s, Beefaroni, Macaroni & Cheese, Mini Ravioli.
• Hormel: Dinty Moore stews; Hormel chili (with and without beans, vegetarian); Kids’ Kitchen meals.
• Franco-American (Campbell’s): Mini Ravioli, Power Rangers pasta, SpaghettiOs.

Meat and dairy alternatives

• Worthington Foods brands (later Kellogg’s): Loma Linda Meatless Chik Nuggets; Morningstar Farms burgers and patties; Natural Touch patties and loaves; Worthington Savory Slices and Vegetarian Burger. The original list noted a company letter saying it was moving to non-GE protein ingredients.
• Nutra Blend Soy Beverage (Bestfoods): Apple, Orange, Original, Vanilla.

Rice, pasta and sauce mixes

• Betty Crocker: Bowl Appetit, Creamy Herb Risotto, Garden Vegetable Pilaf, Garlic Alfredo Fettuccine, Macaroni & Cheese, Pasta Alfredo.
• Knorr (Bestfoods): risottos, pilafs, pasta sides, and sauce and gravy packets (from Béarnaise and Hollandaise to Roasted Turkey).
• Lipton (Unilever): Rice & Sauce packets and Sizzle & Stir skillet meals.
• Quaker: Near East couscous, pilafs and Falafel Mix; Pasta Roni; Rice-A-Roni.
• Uncle Ben’s (Mars): Chef’s Recipe, Country Inn and Natural Select rice dishes; Long Grain & Wild Rice.

Snacks

• Frito-Lay (PepsiCo): Cheetos, Cracker Jack, Doritos, Fritos, Lay’s, Rold Gold, Ruffles, Tostitos. The original list added that Frito-Lay had asked its corn and potato suppliers to avoid GE crops but could not rule out GE oils and other ingredients.
• Popcorn: Act II, Healthy Choice and Orville Redenbacher’s (ConAgra); Pop Secret (General Mills).
• Pringles (then Procter & Gamble): Cheezums, Low Fat, Original, Pizza-licious, Salt & Vinegar, Sour Cream & Onion.
• Rice and corn cakes (Quaker): Quaker Rice Cakes and mini cakes, Quaker Corn Cakes, Mother’s Butter Pop corn cakes.

Soft drinks and juice drinks

• Coca-Cola: Barq’s, Cherry Coke, Fruitopia, Hi-C, Minute Maid Grape and Orange, Sprite, Surge.
• PepsiCo: Fruit Works, Mountain Dew, Mug Root Beer, Pepsi and Wild Cherry Pepsi, Slice, Tropicana Twisters; Gatorade (then Quaker).
• Cadbury Schweppes: 7 Up, A&W Root Beer, Dr Pepper, Schweppes Ginger Ale, Sunkist.
• Kraft: Capri Sun, Kool-Aid, Tang.
• Others: Hawaiian Punch and Sunny Delight (then Procter & Gamble), Ocean Spray cranberry drinks, Squeeze It (General Mills), V8 juices (Campbell’s).

Soup, tomato products and pasta sauce

• Campbell’s: condensed soups (Cheddar Cheese, Chicken Noodle, Cream of Broccoli, Celery, Chicken and Mushroom, Green Pea, Tomato), Healthy Request, Select, Chunky, Soup to Go and Simply Home lines; Pepperidge Farm soups; Prego pasta sauces.
• ConAgra: Healthy Choice soups and pasta sauces; Hunt’s tomato sauce, paste and spaghetti sauces.
• Progresso (Pillsbury): including Chicken Barley, Lentil, New England Clam Chowder, Tomato Basil and Fat Free varieties.
• Unilever: Five Brothers and Ragú sauces (Old World, Robusto, Chunky Garden Style, Pizza Quick).
• Del Monte: Tomato Sauce.

The original compilers also pointed readers to a longer list by Stephanie Ladwig-Cooper of companies that funded opposition to California's 2012 GMO labelling ballot measure, Proposition 37.

What has changed since the list was made

A lot. Ownership has shifted repeatedly: Kraft and Nabisco left Philip Morris, Unilever bought Bestfoods, Kellogg bought Keebler and Worthington, and Hershey makes Cadbury chocolate in the US under licence. Many items above no longer exist.

Recipes have changed too. Under consumer pressure some companies reformulated products; General Mills, for example, announced in 2014 that original Cheerios would be made without GE ingredients, and a growing number of brands carry third-party “non-GMO” verification. At the same time, GE crop use on US farms has kept rising, so products without such a claim very often still contain GE-derived oil, sugar or corn ingredients.

Are GE foods safe? What the evidence says

This is the question behind most searches for lists like this one. The broad scientific view is that the GE foods currently on the market are no riskier to eat than their conventional counterparts. A major 2016 review by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found no evidence linking them to disease, and the World Health Organization says no harmful effects on human health have been shown from approved GE foods. Scientists still stress case-by-case testing of each new crop.

Many people prefer to avoid GE ingredients for other reasons: concerns about herbicide use on herbicide-tolerant crops, the market power of seed companies, effects on biodiversity, or simply the wish to know what they are eating. Those are legitimate debates about farming and food systems, and they are separate from the question of whether a given food is safe to eat.

Common myths

• “GMO-free means healthier.” A GE-free cookie is still a cookie. The nutritional value of a product depends on sugar, fat, salt and fibre, not on whether its oil came from GE canola.
• “Refined sugar and oil from GE crops contain modified DNA.” Refining removes almost all DNA and protein; sugar from GE beets is chemically the same as sugar from conventional beets.
• “All GE food is now labelled.” Not quite, as the next section explains.

How to check a product today

In 2016 Congress passed a law requiring a national disclosure standard for bioengineered foods, which overrode state laws such as Vermont's. The US Department of Agriculture's National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard became mandatory on 1 January 2022. Covered foods must carry the words “Bioengineered food” or “Contains a bioengineered food ingredient”, a USDA symbol, a QR code or similar link, or a text-message option.

Know the gaps before you rely on it:

• Highly refined ingredients with no detectable modified genetic material, such as many oils and sugars, do not have to be disclosed.
• Restaurant food and products from very small manufacturers are exempt.
• Up to 5% unintentional bioengineered content per ingredient is allowed without disclosure, compared with 0.9% in the European Union.
• Meat, eggs and milk from animals fed GE feed do not need a label on that basis alone.

If you want to avoid GE ingredients altogether, the most reliable signals are the USDA Organic seal, since organic rules prohibit GE ingredients, and third-party non-GMO certifications. For everything else, scan the ingredient list for corn syrup, corn starch, soy lecithin, soybean, canola or cottonseed oil and plain “sugar”, which are the usual GE-derived ingredients.

Sources: Brand list as published by Shift Frequency; Congressional Research Service, R46183: The National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard; USDA Economic Research Service: Recent Trends in GE Adoption; Wikipedia: Genetically modified food; Stephanie Ladwig-Cooper's list.