People like you and me are making huge food companies do huge things – like the announcement of Hershey’s chocolate ditching GMO sugarbeet last month, or Campbell’s committing to GMO labelling, or ALDI Germany committing to neonicotinoid-free stores (the pesticide that causes bee colony collapse).
Often we don’t join the dots between our growing consciousness of wanting to opt for whole foods wherever possible, but the truth is: They’re seeing us all jump ship and they’re trying to do something to get us back. It’s interesting because we’re also conscious of fairtrade and pesticides and MSG now too so a company has to be prepared to be fully transparent and make fully conscious choices to get the Conscious foodie’s vote – BUT I do believe in celebrating change if it’s the good kind and change is very much afoot.
I’ve always said, no company is interested in producing products that people don’t want to buy. So they have 2 choices when people stop wanting to buy: Go bust, or die trying to rescue their brands.
MARS Inc has announced a global phase out of artificial, petroleum derived colours for their ‘human food’ products. Sure it doesn’t mean they’ll be additive free of any kind, and yes they’ll still be full of refined sugar, but in face off between fake colours and sugar? I’d pick the sweet stuff.
You have to giggle at the marketing spiel. Let me translate it for you…
They say “We’re in the business of satisfying and delighting the people who love our products. Eliminating all artificial colors from our human food portfolio is a massive undertaking, and one that will take time and hard work to accomplish. Our consumers are the boss and we hear them. If it’s the right thing to do for them, it’s the right thing to do for Mars.”
Translation: Our sales started to take a turn for the worse. We took surveys from focus groups and it turns out people don’t like eating stuff that originates from crude oil once they realise that’s what the colours of our sweets come from. Our consumers are the boss and too many are jumping ship from our additive packed brands because they’re getting wise, so we basically have no choice but to go with the consumer trend”.
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE.
So pat yourself on the back. Your decision to get curious about what we were putting in our mouths has created a ripple effect that is making massive change in the world.
And it’s good change.
Real Food. Happy Bodies
Image credit Flickr / Dominic Rooney / CC BY 2.0
