FDA: "Love" Does Not Belong On Ingredient List
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has come down heavily on Nashoba Brook bakery for violating food safety requirements as well as mislabeling ingredients. It has asked the West Concord, Massachusetts-based bakery to remove "love" from the list of ingredients on its granola.
In a warning letter to Nashoba dated September 22, the FDA said, "Your Nashoba Granola label lists ingredient "Love". Ingredients required to be declared on the label or labeling of food must be listed by their common or usual name. Love" is not a common or usual name of an ingredient, and is considered to be intervening material because it is not part of the common or usual name of the ingredient."
The FDA noted in its warning letter that it inspected Nashoba's ready-to-eat manufacturing facility located in Concord from May 25 through June 8, 2017, and observed serious violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice or CGMP regulation for foods.
The FDA warned that failure to manufacture foods in accordance with CGMP requirements renders Nashoba's food products adulterated within the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, "in that they have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby they may have been rendered injurious to heath."
However, Nashoba Chief Executive Officer John Gates told Bloomberg News that the FDA's take on love as an ingredient "just felt so George Orwell".
"It's kind of nice that this artisan bakery can say there's love in it and it puts a smile on people's face. Situations like that where the government is telling you you can't list 'love' as an ingredient, because it might be deceptive, just feels so silly," Gates told Bloomberg News.
Gates also noted that some of FDA's observations, particularly on the sanitation issues, were helpful. He said his company will comply with the FDA and plans to send a response to the agency in the next week.
Nashoba Brook Bakery, which opened in September 1998, sells its products in about 120 stores, mostly in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. It has over 50 employees and more than 275 wholesale accounts, according to its website. (dpa)
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