FDA to bakery company: ‘Love is not an ingredient’

Were the cookies and cupcakes baked by your mom or grandma "made with love"? Don't tell the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

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The FDA on Tuesday released a warning letter to Nashoba Brook Bakery, reprimanding the West Concord, Massachusetts-based baker and wholesaler for including "love" in its granola product, Bloomberg reported.
"Your Nashoba Granola label lists ingredient 'Love,'" the agency wrote in the Sept. 22 letter. "Ingredients required to be declared on the label or labeling of food must be listed by their common or usual name [21 CFR 101.4(a)(1). '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."
Nashoba chief executive officer John Gates said the FDA's letter "just felt so George Orwell," Bloomberg reported.
"I really like that we list 'love' in the granola," Gates said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday. "People ask us what makes it so good. 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."
Nashoba, which sells its goods in about 120 stores around New England, was also warned in the same letter for other minor violations regarding product packaging and sanitary conditions, Bloomberg reported.
The company said it plans to comply with all of the FDA's recommendations, Bloomberg reported.
Just don't tell your mom or grandma.