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FDA Cites Ragu for Labeling on Its Pasta Sauce

By MARIA L. La GANGA
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The Food and Drug Administration has cited Ragu Foods Inc. for misleading consumers with its “Ragu New! Fresh Italian 100% Natural Pasta Sauce” labeling in violation of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

This time, it was the word “fresh” and not the word “natural” that was the sticking point, said Allen Halper, assistant to the director of the Division of Regulatory Guidance at the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

“The term ‘fresh’ in the food name is false and misleading in the labels of these foods, which have been made in part from tomato paste and have been heat-processed, preserved or cured,” Halper said. “Also, the name ‘Italian’ implies a geographic origin of the food” that it does not have.

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Ragu must now advise the FDA in writing what it plans to do about the labeling, said Donald Plumb, an FDA consumer safety officer. Plumb said the company plans to respond by April 20.

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Maria L. La Ganga

Maria L. La Ganga is the deputy managing editor for California and Metro, overseeing the Los Angeles Times’ largest editorial department. She joined The Times in 1981 as an academic intern, splitting her time between the former Metro section and National Dragster, the official publication of the National Hot Rod Assn. She has served as Seattle bureau chief, San Francisco bureau chief, edited in the Business section and pitched in on six presidential elections, five for The Times and one for the Guardian. La Ganga left The Times in 2015 and returned in 2018 after a brief hiatus during which she wrote for the Guardian and the Idaho Statesman. She was named city editor in 2022 and promoted to her current role in 2024. La Ganga graduated from Granada Hills High School in the San Fernando Valley and Cal State Northridge, where she studied English literature and journalism.

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