
A “healthy” chocolate chip muffin from Butterfly Bakery.
For most folks, looking at a menu and seeing that something is “no sugar added” or “sugar free” is generally a positive sign, but what if it’s not true? The Butterfly Bakery in Clifton, New Jersey, has found out the hard way what happens to people who make false claims about the nutritional content of their food. The Butterfly Bakery was shut down by the FDA for violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. As it turns out, the company’s fat-free and sugar-free baked goods contained significant amounts of both fat and sugar.
“Butterfly Bakery wants to assure all of its customers that we take continuous pride in the integrity of our products while practicing good manufacturing and ensuring the safety and quality of our products. We are confident that our product claims are true and we are continuing operations to satisfy our customer’s needs,” said bakery president Brenda Isaac on the company’s Facebook page.
The products were the bakery’s No Sugar Added Blueberry Muffins and Sugar Free Double Chocolate Chip Muffins. The blueberry muffins had significantly higher fat than listed; rather than having 3.5 grams of fat and 0.5 grams of saturated fat, the muffins had 10.5 grams of fat and 2.3 grams of saturated fat, 200 and 360 percent more than listed. The sugar-free muffins ended up having sugar in them and their fat content were wrong.
The company also mislabeled serving size and failed to disclose the presence of milk in their products; milk is a major allergen. The company points out that only 3 of their 45 items were tested, and only part of one of the five types of baked goods they make, and is protesting the findings. Until then, the bakery is closed; the FDA takes food labels very seriously.
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