A consumer watchdog is suing General Mills, one of the biggest makers of breakfast cereals including Cheerios, for misleading or false advertising over one of its products.
In a class-action lawsuit filed by Center for Science in the Public Interest in California, plaintiffs Nancy Coe, Tori Castro, and Pamela Mizzi, who are acting on behalf of the group, accuse the defendant of misusing the word "protein" in Cheerios Protein.
According to the lawsuit, the breakfast cereal, which is allegedly marketed to children, contains only a "smidgen" of protein, about 4 grams per serving, which is only around 5% of the average protein serving of Americans daily and significantly less than the 11 grams it advertises. The amount of protein is also correlated to the size of the serving size-that is, it is 55 grams serving size for Protein Cheerios compared to 27 grams serving size on regular Cheerios. Further, when both the regular and protein-infused Cheerios were compared, the latter only has 7/10 grams additional protein.
The consumer group went on to say that one of the biggest components of Protein Cheerios is still sugar and that the amount each box contains is more than 15 times per serving more than the regular Cheerios, an information, they said, that General Mills did not disclose.
The plaintiffs, who had purchased the Protein Cheerios in New York and California, cite that if they had known these data, they would not have purchased the product.
Because of the false marketing, they are now seeking damages and an injunction to stop the misleading campaigns on the product.
In the Factual Allegations section of the lawsuit, it reveals the huge growth and demand for healthy food which manufacturers capitalize by making some of their products appear healthy. For example, protein is added as over 50% of consumers want their diet to be enriched by such nutrition.