Illinois Man Sentenced for Mislabeled Food

Former Nutrisource Inc. executive Robert Ligon was sentenced to 15 months in prison for claiming that baked goods he sold to Whole Foods Market Inc. and other health food stores were low fat.

Ligon, 52, pleaded guilty to mail fraud for putting false nutritional labels on doughnuts, cookies and rolls and selling them from 1995 to 1997. Some of the products went to an Evanston, Ill., store owned by Whole Foods, the largest U.S. natural-foods grocer, prosecutors said.

Ligon sold doughnuts labeled as being covered with carob, a chocolate substitute, and each containing 3 grams of fat and 135 calories, when they actually were chocolate-glazed doughnuts containing 18 grams of fat and 530 calories.

U.S. District Judge James B. Moran also ordered Ligon to serve three years of probation.

The food was sold under the names First Health Foods and First Health Products, the indictment said.

From Bloomberg News