The Kansas City Star reports that Interstate Bakeries has changed the labeling on its Wonder Bread packaging to say that it now contains a dairy product; the formula has been changed to improve the bread’s taste and texture.
However, the reality is that Wonder Bread doesn’t contain any dairy. Not yet, anyway. The company plans to make the change by the end of the year, but says it wanted to give customers plenty of notice of the change so that people with dairy allergies wouldn’t make potentially life-threatening mistakes.
There is an argument, though, that Interstate Bakeries actually in violation of federal labeling regulations, which require companies to accurately label their products. But the company says that it actually is complying with the spirit of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules, that it is trying to make sure that its brand equity is preserved while its consumers are protected.
However, the reality is that Wonder Bread doesn’t contain any dairy. Not yet, anyway. The company plans to make the change by the end of the year, but says it wanted to give customers plenty of notice of the change so that people with dairy allergies wouldn’t make potentially life-threatening mistakes.
There is an argument, though, that Interstate Bakeries actually in violation of federal labeling regulations, which require companies to accurately label their products. But the company says that it actually is complying with the spirit of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules, that it is trying to make sure that its brand equity is preserved while its consumers are protected.
- KC's View:
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While we understand that technically the Interstate Bakeries folks are mislabeling their product, we think that what they are doing actually is quite admirable.
For the sake of argument, compare their actions to those of the McDonald’s Corp., which has been seasoning its French fries with dairy and wheat products – both potentially deadly to people with certain severe food allergies – but only saw fit to make that information public last week. But more on that in our next story…
