The Essential Guide to a Non-GMO Halloween

It’s that time of year when Halloween costumes are being conjured up and the kids are making their Halloween plans. Begin your planning now to help ensure that your children have a Halloween that is both fun and healthy. Kids love Halloween because it is full of wonderful sweet treats and surprises. Unfortunately, these treats are often loaded with unsafe ingredients that would make even the most frightful ghoul scream. Green Halloween and the Non-GMO Project have teamed up to help you sort through the junk food and source fun treats that are free of Halloween horrors!

10 GMO Ingredients in Halloween Candy:
1. Sugar (GMO sugar beets)
2. High fructose corn syrup (GMO corn)
3. Corn starch (GMO corn)
4. Soy lecithin (GMO soy)
5. Soybean oil (GMO soy)
6. Modified food starch (GMO corn)
7. Fructose, dextrose, glucose (GMO corn)
8. Cottonseed oil (GMO cotton)
9. Canola oil (GMO canola)
10. “Other” ingredients: isolates, isoflavones, food  starch, vegetable oil

Choose Non-GMO Project Verified Treats for the Trick-or-Treat Basket:
• Clif Bars
• Nature’s Path Crispy Treats
• Endangered Species chocolates
• Bakery on Main granola bars
• Funky Monkey snacks
• Garden of Eatin’ chip snack bags
• HomeFree cookies
• Yogavive snacks
• Licious Organics snacks
• Pro Bar snack bars
• Pure Organics snacks
• Righteously Raw bars
• Tasty Brand snacks
• Theo Chocolates

Other Fun Alternatives: 
You may want to consider giving away goodies or serving foods that are peanut-free, gluten-free, dairy free and/or egg free. These are some of the most common food allergens with 1 in 13 kids suffering from food allergies. Limiting highly allergic foods is one way to ensure that Halloween is safe and fun for everyone. 

Does your child want to go door-to-door, but you don't want them to consume ALL the candy they receive? Consider establishing a points system and letting your child trade their candy in to earn points toward a special gift or activity. Dentists across the country also take part in the Halloween Candy Buy Back Program in which uneaten candy is collected (usually at $1/lb) and sent overseas to American Troops. 

About Green Halloween: A national initiative to create a healthier and more “EEK-O-friendly” Halloween. Launched by a motherdaughter team in Seattle of 2006, the program has sparked a green holidays revolution by inspiring families, communities, product brands and retailers to do their part to make child and Earth-healthy traditions easy, accessible, affordable and fun.

The Non-GMO Project is a nonprofit organization committed to preserving and building sources of non-GMO products, educating consumers, and providing verified non-GMO choices. The Non-GMO Project offers North America’s ONLY third party verification for products produced according to rigorous best practices for GMO avoidance.