Can a Biscuit with Vegetable Fats and Additional Ingredients Be Labeled as "Shortbread" in the USA?
Hi all,
We're exporting some English-made biscuits to USA. The importer / agent insists on renaming one of them as shortbread, which in UK would be considered a wrongful claim, as the biscuit isn't made as per traditional shortbread recipe, i.e., flour, butter, sugar (the one we make and sell has a bunch of other ingredients in, and is also made with veg fats instead of butter).
The question is - can a biscuit like this be called shortbread in USA from claims perspective? Is there any definition in USA as to what a shortbread is?
Thanks.
You can still call it. Look at Nabisco shortbread cookies - no typical flour, butter, sugar as main ingredients.
What you are looking for is called a "standard of identity"
They can be found here in 21 C.F.R. Chapter 1, Subchapter B, Parts 131-169.
As Kconf mentioned, there is no standard of identity for shortbread in the United States.
Here is a link to the specific part that deals with bakery products.
There are no results for the words "biscuit" or "shortbread"
21 CFR 136
Fantastic, thank you so much, that's exactly the answer I was looking for.