Hershey has “resolved” concerns voiced by the US Food and Drink Administration that the labeling of the chocolate giant’s fortified syrup products failed to meet regulatory guidelines.
In a letter made public earlier today, the FDA said Hershey’s Syrup+Calcium and Syrup Sugar Free with Vitamin & Mineral Fortification violate federal nutritional labeling requirements.
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“We have resolved the FDA’s concern about labeling of certain Hershey’s chocolate syrups that are fortified with calcium, vitamins and minerals by making minor changes on those products’ labels,” a spokesperson for Hershey told just-food today (14 August).
According to the spokesperson, the FDA’s concern was based on the regulator’s fortification policy stating “snack foods” should not be fortified.
“We do not believe that chocolate syrup is a ‘snack’. We believe it is more accurately categorised as a ‘milk modifier’, similar to products like Ovaltine and Nesquik, which have been fortified for decades,” the spokesperson said. “We fortified these syrup products in a way that is consistent with the FDA’s fortification policy for foods, so we believe the fortification was appropriate and done within FDA guidelines for foods other than snacks.”
Nevertheless, the spokesperson said Hershey has made some “minor changes” to the labels of these syrup products. Changes include replacing the plus symbol in Syrup+Calcium with the word “with” and replacing the word “fortification” in the sugar-free chocolate syrup with the word “with”.
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By GlobalData“We have… shared the revised labels with FDA. FDA expressed no concern with the revised labels,” the spokesperson concluded. “Both of these products continue to have the same formulation.”
The FDA was not available for comment at time of press.
