If you love Hershey’s Kisses, you’re about to love them a lot more. Thanks to pressure from consumers, the company has announced that it will make its Kisses and milk chocolate bars with simpler, genetically-modified-free ingredients by the end of the year.

In a corporate media release on BusinessWire, President and Chief Executive Officer, John P. Bilbrey, at The Hershey Company stated: “We all want and deserve to know what’s in our food. Hershey takes pride in listening to our consumers and customers and understanding what they need. We will continue to make our great-tasting, high-quality iconic brands that people know and love. We also will share more information about what goes into our products in ways that are easy to understand and access.”

In a question and answer guide on its site Hershey’s says it will be releasing new products that are “gluten-free, and have no artificial colors and flavors or high fructose corn syrup.” It also states that the changes Hershey is making to ingredients include sourcing: non-genetically-modified sugar, sustainable and traceable palm oil, and rBST-free milk. BST is a hormone known as bovine somatotropin; rBST is a genetically-modified version of the hormone developed by Monsanto using genetically-engineered E. coli bacteria. Hershey has made a public commitment to eliminate the ingredient from its products.

The company plans to transition its products to “simpler” ingredients with a focus on ingredients that are fresh and local, recognizable, responsibly-sourced, and trustworthy. It also plans to share information about ingredient sources, manufacturing processes, and labeling.

Labeling of genetically-modified ingredients has been a controversial topic in recent years and especially since the state of Vermont announced its law requiring genetically-modified foods and ingredients to be labeled. On June 12, 2014 Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) filed a lawsuit against the state in a federal U.S. District Court, State of Vermont, in an effort to overturn Vermont’s Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) labeling law.

Consumers have increasingly demanded that they have a right to know what is in their food and to make informed choices based on transparent information. Hershey’s follows other companies in their commitment to make at least some of its products non-GMO, including: General Mills, Unilever, and Post Foods.

GMO Inside is asking Hershey to go even further by obtaining third-party non-GMO certification regarding its ingredients. Obviously this is a critical next step in providing trustworthy ingredients in Hershey products and the company has not yet indicated whether it will do so. But the announcement to move two of its products this year and more after that to being free of genetically-modified ingredients is a victory for consumers everywhere.

The Center for Environmental Health started a petition on Care2 asking Hershey’s to take GMOs out of their chocolates — and it worked! Their petition received more than 8,000 signatures. If you want to put pressure on a food company, start a petition and get help from the Care2 community.

Image credit: meddygarnet via Flickr

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/hershey-kisses-to-be-free-of-genetically-modified-ingredients-this-year.html#ixzz3TExlSyzL