The federal body in charge of American food safety has warned a Massachusetts bakery to banish ‘love’ from the ingredients listed on its granola, or bloody else.
Nashoba Brook Bakery has asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant it leniency on the cutesy breakfast staple, after the agency said the inclusion of ‘love’ violates federal regulations. You know, as ‘love’ isn’t actually a tangible substance with measurable nutritional values.
The bakery’s CEO John Gates told The Washington Examiner they’ve been advised to drop it, but he maintains that ‘love’ really is a fundamental component of his company’s product.
“We just always took that as a nice signal to the consumer base as what kind of place we are,” he said.
That’s sweet. However, the FDA had another concern after their July investigation of the joint, and it’s nowhere near as wholesome: Nashoba Brook Bakery was found to have “prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth,” and may have prepared some of their other products in a way that risked impacting folks with peanut allergies.
In a delightfully dour counterpoint to what would be an otherwise lovely ‘humble battler versus red tape’ story, the FDA said “the information about ‘love’ as a listed ingredient was included, but is not among the agency’s top concerns, and focusing only on that particular violation detracts from the multitude of serious violations reflected in this letter.”
Well then.
Gates said his company is doing its due diligence to respond to the FDA’s complaints, but maintained his belief “we don’t take ourselves so seriously that we can’t share the secret sauce.”
Cool. But about that peanut thing…
