University of Cambridge researchers have published a study examining "whether consumers are misled about wholegrain (WG) content and product healthfulness based on common product labels." Wilde et al., "Consumer confusion about wholegrain content and healthfulness in product labels: a discrete choice experiment and comprehension assessment," Public Health Nutrition, August 10, 2020. The researchers showed online participants a pair of hypothetical products and asked them to determine which product is more healthful based on disclosed nutritional information, with some products containing "multigrain," "wheat," "made with whole grains" or similar labeling claims. "Although by design, the ‘no WG label’ option had more actual WG content, substantial fractions of respondents incorrectly identified the ‘WG label’ option as healthier or chose the ‘equally healthy’ option," the researchers stated. In addition, they found that "[r]espondents showed substantial difficulty in identifying the WG content of four actual products found in the marketplace," generally overestimating the amount of…
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A plaintiff has filed a lawsuit asserting that Trader Joe's misleads consumers by using "enriched flour" as the predominant ingredient in its 12 Grain Mini Snack Crackers. Rosenfeld v. Trader Joe's Co., No. 20-3717 (E.D.N.Y., filed August 14, 2020). "The representations are misleading because the Product contains (1) a de minimis amount of the 12 grain blend, (2) less of the 12 grain blend than consumers expect and (3) predominantly [] enriched white flour," the plaintiff argues. "This is revealed through the fine print of the ingredient list, indicating 'enriched flour' is the predominant flour, listed far ahead of the 12 grain blend ('Multigrain Flour Blend')." The plaintiff argues that the product's "common or usual name" should include the "percentage of the characterizing 12 grain blend ingredient" because "the proportion of this ingredient 'has a material bearing on price or consumer acceptance or when the labeling or the appearance of the…
The Second Circuit has reversed a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that Kellogg Co. misleads consumers by marketing its Cheez-Its as “made with whole grain.” Mantikas v. Kellogg Co., No. 17-2011 (2nd Cir., entered December 11, 2018). The lower court had agreed with Kellogg that the “made with whole grain” label was factually accurate and would not mislead reasonable consumers, and it dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. “Although the district court is correct that an allegedly misleading statement must be viewed ‘in light of its context on the product label or advertisement as a whole,’ [] the court misapplied that principle to Plaintiffs’ claims in this case,” the court held. “Plaintiffs’ core allegation is that the statements ‘Whole Grain’ and ‘Made With Whole Grain’ are misleading because they communicate to the reasonable consumer that the grain in the product is predominantly, if not entirely,…
