Bethenny Frankel’s Skinnygirl Margarita Gets Axed

Bethenny Frankel sipping her Skinnygirl Margarita

Probably most famous for her role on the Real Housewives of New York City, Bethenny Frankel has also had a ‘little’ success <ahem> with her diet-driven, “all natural” premade cocktail drink called Skinnygirl Margarita, but the success might be hitting a little bit of a speed bump now.

According to the New York Post, the ambitious entrepreneur and ‘health chef’ is being called out by the health food supermarket chain Whole Foods, on her claims that her Skinnygirl product is made with completely natural ingredients and contains “no preservatives”.

Testing done on the drink itself revealed that the product does indeed contain sodium benzoate, a preservative that can “become carcinogenic” if mixed with other ingredients like vitamin C.

A rep for the Skinnygirl line (which also includes Skinnygirl Sangria), asserts that the drink contains “extremely low levels” of sodium benzoate, and made it a point to say that use of the preservative is “very common”.

In a written statement regarding the removal of the product, Whole Foods said, “After discovering that it contains a preservative that does not meet our quality standards, we have had to stop selling it.”

Frankel fired back, telling Access Hollywood, “”I’m not making wheatgrass here. If I could put an agave plant and some limes on a shelf I would. [The Skinnygirl Margarita] is as close to nature as possible, while still being a shelf-stable product.”

She also added that it was Skinnygirl that put the kibosh on Whole Foods, and not the other way around, saying that the store’s sales only represented “an infinitesimal fraction” of her business, and labeled it a “non-event”.

Hmmm…With a net worth of somewhere around $120 million, I’m not thinking Bethenny will be losing too much sleep over this.  What do you think?

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