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American Morning

Big Daddy Labeling Snafu Honest Mistake?

Aired July 03, 2001 - 11:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Big Daddy is still making some news on this calorie conscience day. You may remember earlier reports, the Big Daddy low fat ice frozen treat had a mistake on its nutrition label, the flub up with the number of servings in the container for the stated calories and fat.

Well, its maker, the DeConna Ice Cream Company, calls the mislabeling an honest mistake and says it's going to be corrected. In the meantime, DeConna is offering to reimburse customers with coupons for free Big Daddy ice cream. And the DeConna Ice Cream Company has been in business for 54 years and we have the President of the company now on the phone. Vince DeConna joins us from Orange Lake, Florida. Mr. DeConna, are you there?

VINCE DECONNA, PRESIDENT, DECONNA ICE CREAM: Yes, hello.

NELSON: All right. Thanks for being with us. I'm having a little trouble understanding how it could be an honest mistake to say that you can tell your customers that they can eat an entire container of ice cream when it's supposed to be low fat. How do you do that?

DECONNA: Well, we, first of all I want to apologize to the customers for labeling error. The label was incorrect. But now that we have the correct nutritional on the product, we have it posted on our Web site, the product is still a low fat, low calorie product and compares favorably to other low fat products on the market. The Big Daddy is 94 calories for a four ounce serving and most other ice cream, low fat ice creams on the market, Blue Bunny, Breyer's, Eddy's are 100 to 120 calories per four ounce serving. So it still comes in at 94 calories for a four ounce serving, and that's by the, you know, lab tests that were done.

NELSON: Since the news came out, Mr. DeConna, what kind of complaints have you received from your customers?

DECONNA: We've received a lot of e-mails, phone calls, letters.

NELSON: Angry?

DECONNA: Some. The percentage of people that have contacted us, some people are angry but the overall majority are saying that they like the product, in fact, they love the product. They're going to continue to buy the product but they're just going to eat less of it. They're going to eat a half cup or a third of a cup instead of eating a whole cup, because they are very conscious about the calories, and like I say, I want to apologize to our customers for the labeling error. But the overwhelming response has been that they like the product and a lot of people have contacted us wanting some type of coupons. So we've up with coupons for a free product that we're going to send out to our customers that would, that requested them.

NELSON: So you're going to get people to eat more ice cream. Is eating ice cream, I mean, in anybody's diet, particularly if you are trying to lose weight on this health conscious day that we are talking about?

DECONNA: Well, people still want a treat and, you know, ice cream is a treat. And if you eat regular ice cream, you are looking at, for a four ounce serving, a whole lot more calories and fat than a low fat product. So the low fat ice cream and low fat yogurts that are on the market, yes, they are a treat for people because people still want, you know, to splurge a little bit. But with the low fat products, it's not all that much of a splurge. You can still eat four ounces and stay within your, if you're watching your weight you can stay within your diet and stay within the calories and fat intake that you're looking to stay in for the day.

NELSON: So you're going to give your customers some coupons or these free coupons? When do they come out and for what are they, what will be offered?

DECONNA: Well, we're going to be posting information. Any of our customers that would like to receive coupons can look up the information on our Web page at DeConna.com, or they can contact us at P.O. Box 39, Orange Lake, Florida, 32681. Any customers, we're going to take our customers at their word. If they say they've purchased a product and would like coupons for a free product, we're going to send them coupons for a free product.

NELSON: All right, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us this morning, the president and founder, I believe, of DeConna Ice Cream.

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