US cereal heavyweight Kellogg has settled a lawsuit alleging it made false health claims about some of its breakfast products in its domestic market.
The company has agreed to pay US$20m and change its product marketing to resolve the legal challenge which dates back three years.
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The class action suit said Kellogg falsely advertised sugar-heavy cereals as healthy.
But documents filed at California’s federal court, seen by just-food, show the claim – Hadley v Kellogg Sales Company, originally filed in the northern district of California on 29 August 2016 – has been settled before reaching trial, although the settlement still has to be approved by the court.
The plaintiff, Stephen Handley, complained about Kellogg using terms such as healthy, nutritious and wholesome on selected cereals. He argued such terms suggested these were low sugar products.
Kelogg counter-argued it had never advertised these products as low- or reduced-sugar and had not hidden the sugar content.
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By GlobalDataNevertheless, in settling the legal suit, Kellogg has agreed to change the marketing on some of its products. For example, it will remove the phrase ‘lightly sweetened’ from Frosted Mini-Wheats and Smart Start cereals.
It has also agreed to pay $20m into a settlement fund, enabling customers to claim back money or receive vouchers.
just-food contacted Kellogg to get a response to this news but the company said: “We politely decline to comment.”
