I took a tour of Whole Foods Saturday and was impressed with the setup, as someone who is trying to avoid GMOs this is a good addition to my shopping routine. Whole Foods products are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners (HFCS), and hydrogenated fats and have pledged that by the year 2018 all GMOs will be labeled. They already have the Non-GMO project label on some of their product.

Sorry for the poor quality photos. My phone was acting up that day.

On the wall behind the seafood counter are Whole Food’s farmed seafood standards they use third-party verification to ensure suppliers meet the standards. The wild-caught seafood rating program provides information about the sustainability status of all non-MSC certified wild-caught seafood in all seafood cases. They have commited to purchasing seafood from the most abundant, best managed, fisheries.

They also have a 5 step animal welfare rating standard which is a tiered rating system developed to rank animal welfare practices and conditions within farm-animal production systems. Because if your meat is healthy and happy so is your body!

  They also will have local vendor product in the store as well. Hickory Nut Gap Farm and Three Graces Dairy will be available here among others.

Another local vendor Buchi was there with samples of their product. I have to say the first time I tried kambucha I hated it (it was not the Buchi brand). I was able to try Buchi at the Food Blog forum in Asheville and was happy that I gave it another go. Buchi is not as overpowering as the other brand I tasted.  Buchi will have product on tap upstairs in Whole Foods Tunnel Road Tap Haus so you can fill up a growler and save, also if you buy it by the case you get a discount. The Tap Haus is an upper-level beer garden with 12 taps including several local brews (my favorite kind).

Whole Foods Market will open its Asheville location for business Tuesday, Aug. 26. The store is located at 4 South Tunnel Rd. at the new Asheville Market.