The US Food and Drug Administration sent a letter to the Nashoba Brook Bakery Company on Tuesday with a firm warning: somehow get the “Love” on your ingredient list approved by the FDA or get it out of the granola bag.
Bloomberg News reports that the baked goods company has been reprimanded for being too twee, and listing an emotion as an ingredient of their Nashoba Granola. It’s both high in calories and flights of fancy. The FDA demanded Nashoba take the word “love” off its packaging in a very dry letter:
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 [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.
In a phone interview, Nashoba Chief Executive Officer John Gates described the notice as being “so George Orwell.” He says he likes that love is a component of their tasty oats and berries, and so do customers:
“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.”
Less silly is the fact that the FDA also busted Nashoba’s chops for preparing and packaging their product “under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby they may have been rendered injurious to heath.” Sounds like making love to me.
Gates says the company will be complying with the administration’s demands, making the world a little less magical and their granola a little sadder (but cleaner). Anyway, always read the ingredient list. Manufacturers sneak in all sorts of preservatives, sugars, and additives. Before you know it, you’ve eaten all your feelings, and that’s not healthy. And neither is granola!