FDA Says Bakery's Granola Can't Be Made With 'Love'

Love may make the world go round, but it's not the stuff from which you make granola, at least according to the FDA. "There's little room for whimsy when it comes to FDA compliance," as Law 360 puts it in its report on a Massachusetts-based bakery that distributes to about 120 stores throughout New England. Nashoba Brook Bakery was taken to task by the agency over its inclusion of "Love" as one of the ingredients in its Nashoba Granola. In a Sept. 22 letter to CEO John Gates and Head Baker Stuart Witt that outlines a slew of violations related to sanitation, the FDA also called out the bakery's use of the word "Love" as an ingredient. It reads, "Ingredients required to be declared on the label or labeling of food must be listed by their common or usual name."

And, in case you were wondering, "'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." Gates described the situation as "just ... so George Orwell" in a call with Bloomberg. "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." The FDA may not think it's silly, but it does think it's minor. Bloomberg reports that violation was one of its lesser concerns, with the letter noting bread-load molds that weren't cleaned between uses and an employee whose blue plastic bracelet came into contact with raw dough, among other transgressions. (The FDA once had an issue with "healthy" KIND bars.)