FDA slaps Hershey chocolate syrup over nutritional claims - Chicago Tribune

Visitors head to the Hershey World store in Hershey, Pa. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images / August 14, 2012)

Reuters

11:49 a.m. CDT, August 14, 2012

Hershey Co. made nutritional claims for its chocolate syrups that do not meet regulatory guidelines, the Food and Drug Administration said.

In a warning letter to the company dated Feb. 14, made public on Tuesday, the FDA said the labels on Hershey's Syrup+Calcium and its Syrup Sugar Free with Vitamin & Mineral Fortification violate federal law.

The FDA said the company may not use the terms "plus" and "fortification" on the labels because the products' nutritional contents do not meet the guidelines needed for such claims.

A spokesman for Hershey said the company had resolved the matter. The label on the first product now says Syrup with Calcium rather than Syrup+Calcium. In the case of the second product, the word "fortification" has been removed.

The FDA said that to be noted on a food label, the amount of vitamins and minerals must equal at least 10 percent of the reference daily intake, or meet other crit eria that Hershey's syrups had not met.