NRI Pulse Staff Report
Cover photo: Screenshot from a Yoplait commercial.
Atlanta,
GA, March 8, 2024: Does Yoplait yogurt contain beef? Rajan Zed, president of
Universal Society of Hinduism is asking for the resignation of General Mills
CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening with an official apology from the company for
non-disclosure of beef in its Yoplait yogurts, and their immediate recall from
the market.
In a
statement in Nevada today, Zed said, “it was shocking for Hindus to learn that
popular Yoplait yogurts, which they had been eating for years, contained beef;
while beef was not explicitly mentioned under the ingredients listed on the
Yoplait packages/boxes.”
Zed said Yoplait yogurts contained gelatin, but their source was not mentioned on the packages/boxes.
When Zed
contacted General Mills, its consumer care department responded: “The source of
Gelatin in all Yoplait Yogurt Products is beef.”
“Consumption
of beef is highly conflicting to Hindu beliefs. Cow, the seat of many deities,
is sacred and has long been venerated in Hinduism,” Zed said.
“General
Mills, which claims to be an “innovative company that stands for
good”, should not be in the business of hurting the sentiments of trusting
consumers and communities and contradicting its own statement “Do the
Right Thing, All the Time”, Zed noted.
“Now was
the time for General Mills to admit their serious error of not being
transparent enough to mention in clear and simple terms what was inside the
package/box so that an ordinary consumer could make right and appropriate
choices,” Zed said.
“Moreover, in the future, General Mills should explicitly list beef in the ingredients on the package/box when beef was present in the product,” Zed added.
Besides the
resignation of its CEO and an official apology; Zed urged General Mills to
recall all Yoplait packages/boxes containing gelatin where the source of
gelatin was not clearly mentioned.
General
Mills, headquartered in Minneapolis and founded in 1866, generated fiscal 2023
net sales of US$20.1 billion. It won the award “America’s Most Responsible
Companies, Newsweek 2022 and 2023”, and claims: “we make food with
passion that brings goodness to people, communities and the planet”.
Yoplait
was officially launched in 1965 in Paris. In 1971, it reached the USA and
Canada. General Mills acquired a majority stake in Yoplait in July 2011.