Bakery Ingredient Shutdown

Andrew Wilkinson shares a story about how regulatory issues shut down his experimental bakery business in Canada.

"I was trying to get off sugar, so I went to a baker friend and asked if they could make sugar-free cookies using modern sugars. They started using ingredients like allulose, stevia, and monk fruit - similar to what Magic Spoon uses. The cookies turned out pretty good - not as good as regular chocolate chip cookies, but about 90% there. I thought this could be like Halo Top - doesn't taste as good as ice cream, but you can eat a lot of it and it's not as bad for you.

We started making these treats and cooking out of our office, which wasn't technically legal. Then I got a call from Island Health, the local health authority. They said we were using an ingredient that's not approved in Canada - allulose isn't approved there, so we legally couldn't serve food with it, even though it's generally regarded as safe everywhere else.

I still want to do it at some point, but legally can't right now. It's insane to me that you can hit these regulatory issues. It's so different as an internet entrepreneur - imagine being a real estate developer and having this amazing vision, and then city council just says 'nope.'"