Bake n Grind sold bread as gluten-free — lab tests found gluten. Owner faces 5 years

Bake n Grind, an online bakery run by Felicia Novenna, sold bread labelled gluten-free and allergen-free — claims that parents of allergic children treat as promises. Much of the offering was repackaged goods: bread bought from other producers and resold under the Bake n Grind name with new labels. When a one-and-a-half-year-old in Jakarta broke out in rashes, itching and skin inflammation after eating it, a doctor linked the illness to gluten and had the bread tested in a laboratory. The result confirmed: the 'gluten-free' bread contained gluten.

The child's mother filed a report with the Metro Jaya regional police, registered on 24 October 2025 as suspected fraud under the Criminal Code. The layered provisions outlined in coverage of the case: article 100 of the Food Law, against incorrect or misleading information on food labels, carries up to five years' imprisonment or a Rp10 billion fine; article 8 of the Consumer Protection Law, on trading goods that do not match the promises on their label, carries a fine of up to Rp2 billion; and fraud under article 378 of the Criminal Code stood as an additional charge.

The case reached beyond one bakery. It exposed how easily a label can be manufactured in the repackaged-food trade, where a reseller's printer can promise safety that no laboratory has verified. For allergy buyers, 'free-from' claims are not marketing decoration but medical information — and Indonesian law treated them that way.