A number of years ago, there was a pitched legislative battle at the state and federal level over mandatory bioengineered (BE) food labeling, which would identify food products that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Vermont was the only state that implemented a mandatory GMO food labeling law ahead of the federal government’s national rule, which was announced in 2016 and implemented in 2022. 

But a study conducted by researchers at Cornell University, the University of Massachusetts, and the Imperial College Business School in London released earlier this year concludes that retail sales data from Vermont shows that state’s labeling requirement did not affect demand for GMO products. The study also predicts that the national GMO/BE labeling law is unlikely to significantly affect consumer behavior. These findings are somewhat surprising given that the Pew Research Center found in 2018 that 49% of U.S. adults believe foods which contain GMO ingredients are less healthy than foods without them, and "88 percent of consumers have a strong preference for including this information on the label.”

These seemingly contradictory research results beg the question of how much utility all the labeling rules in the food and beverage space actually have. While consumers seem to want easy access to product information, if having that information has no impact on their purchasing decisions, what's all the fuss about?