Lawsuit complains Veggie Straws aren't made of vegetables
Litigation against food companies for mislezinc tablets 500mgading labeling seems to perpetually appear. For instance, Post has been sued for labeling cereals “natural” because the crops the ingredients came from were treated with synthetic herbicide. And General Mills currently is fighting a lawsuit based on Cheerios Protein, in which plaintiffs claim the packaging’s health claims are misleading because the protein-packed cereal actually contains 17 times the sugar of the regular variety.###However, this lawsuit runs over slightly different ground. Would a reasonable consumer believe the crunchy snacks are healthy based on things such as the word “veggie” in the product name and pictures of vegetables? A few similar lawsuits dealing with cereal have been filed, and all were summarily dismissed.###Sevezinc glycinate 120 softgelsral lawsuits were filed — many by the same plaintiff — claiming that Kellogg’s Froot Loops cereal was deceptive since the name led them to believe the cereal contained fruit. Rulings in these cases were all very similar. Judges said “froot” should not be confused with actual fruit, and the cereal “does not resemble any known fruit.”###Other lawsuits — which were also quickly dismissed — were filed against Quaker Oats’ Cap’n Crunch cereals. Consumers sued the manufacturer because the crunchberries variety of the cereal did not contain fruit. In fact, the plaintiff claimed to be unawchelated zinc kya hota haiare that a crunchberry wasn’t actually a real fruit. ###The judge issued an unequivocal denial.###”This Court is not aware of, nor has Plaintiff alleged the existence of, any actual fruit referred to as a ‘crunchberry,’ ” she wrote. “Furthermore, the ‘Crunchberries’ depicted on the [box] are round, crunchy, brightly-colored cereal balls, and the [box] clearly states both that the Product contains ‘sweetened corn & oat cereal’ and that the cereal is ‘enlarged to show texture.’ Thus, a reasonable consumer wou
ld not be deceived into believing that the Product in the instant case contained a fruit that does not exist
. . . . So far as this Court has been made aware, there is no such fruit growing in the wild or occurring naturally in any part of the world.”###While vegetables are real, and there indeed are pictures and terminology on the package to suggest that Veggie Straws are
made from vegetables, it is up to the court to decide if this lawsuit goes forward. Vchelated zinc 500 gm priceeggie Straws certainly taste and feel more like savory snacks than vegetables, and it would not be surprising if a judge ruled that no reasonable consumer would believe the snack is health food.###A pending lawsuit against PepsiCo’s Quaker Oats may provide the closest parallel. The company is being sued because the maple and brown sugadifference between zinc oxide and zinc gluconater variety of its instant oats has a picture on the package of a pitcher of maple syrup — but the product does not contain it. What happens next with the Quaker Oats lawsuit may set the tone for what may become of the compliant against Veggie Straws.