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FDA rebukes bakery for claiming 'love' as an ingredient in granola

 Travis M. Andrews

By Travis M. Andrews The Washington Post

Published October 10, 2017

FDA rebukes bakery for claiming 'love' as an ingredient in granola
The ingredient list for Massachusetts-based Nashoba Brook Bakery's granola was normal enough, save for one ingredient. Amid the oats and sweetener was "love."


The subject of nearly every rock-and-roll song, the thing Romeo and Juliet died for, was supposedly in the granola, which was sold at around 120 stores around New England.


The "ingredient" was a nod to the passion bakers put into their product and wink to fans of the snack. As the Concord bakery's Twitter account shows, the business has a sense of humor.


"I really like that we list 'love' in the granola," Nashoba Chief Executive Officer John Gates told Bloomberg News. "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."


But the Food and Drug Administration didn't see it that way. A human emotion, it said, cannot be an ingredient in baked goods.

The FDA sent a warning letter to the bakery, which told the bakery to stop claiming that its granola contains love:


Gates said the letter "just felt so George Orwell."


"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," he told Bloomberg.

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