Among the myriad problems the FDA listed after inspecting Nashoba Brook Bakery’s manufacturing facility: Love in the granola.
Deep in a Sept. 22 warning letter by Food and Drug Administration to the Concord, Massachusetts, manufacturer is this admonishment:
“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.”
Nashoba Chief Executive Officer John Gates told Bloomberg that particular part of the FDA’s letter “just felt so George Orwell.”
“I really like that we list ‘love’ in the granola,” Gates told 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.”