FDA warns Hershey over chocolate syrup labeling

Hershey's candy bars are displayed at a gas station in Phoenix, Arizona October 27, 2011.

(Reuters) - Hershey Co made nutritional claims for its chocolate syrups that do not meet regulatory guidelines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.

In a warning letter to the company dated February 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 to make 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 in order to be used on a food label, the amount of vitamins and minerals must equal at least 10 percent of the reference daily intake, or meet other criteria that Hershey's syrups had not met.

(Reporting by Toni Clarke; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and John Wallace)