Certain of the pancake and waffle mixes offered by Birch Benders, LLC are labeled as being with the specific amounts of protein they purport to contain, for example, “10g Protein.” But the complaint for this class action alleges that these amounts of protein are misleading, because they are not calculated according to the protein’s PDCAAS score.
The class for this action is all persons in California who bought the products at issue in this case between April 7, 2018 and the present.
The complaint alleges, “The Food and Drug Administration (‘FDA’) prohibits such front label claims about the amount of protein, unless manufacture[r]s also provide additional information in the nutrition fact panel about how much of the recommended daily value for protein [] the product will actually provide.”
Proteins differ in their ability to meet human daily protein requirements. The complaint alleges, “Some proteins are deficient in one or more of the nine amino acids essential to human protein synthesis and/or are not fully digestible within the human gut.”
The FDA requires that protein quality must be measured via a Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score, or PDCAAS. This takes into consideration both the protein’s amino acid profile and its digestibility to arrive at a score between 0.0 and 1.0. This score must be multiplied by the quantity of protein in a serving.
The complaint explains, “For example, a PDCAAS of .5 means that only half of the protein in that product is actually available to support human protein needs. If the product contained 10 grams total protein per serving, the corrected amount of protein would be only 5 grams per serving.”
Manufacturers who want to make a protein claim for their products, the complaint says, must provide a “corrected amount of protein per serving” in the nutrition facts panel, as calculated with the PDCAAS score and expressed as a percentage of the daily value (%DV) right beside the statement of protein quantity. The %DV is a portion of the daily reference value for protein of 50 grams.
With 10 grams of protein and a PDCAAS of .5, the %DV would be 10%.
The complaint alleges, “The primary protein sources in [Birch Benders] products are wheat and brown rice. Wheat and brown rice are low quality proteins with a PDCAAS score of between 0.4 and 0.5, which means [Birch Benders] products will provide nutritionally as little as half of their total protein quantity.” But the complaint claims that the company does not provide the required statement of %DV in its nutrition facts panel.
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
Birch Bender Pancake Mix Amounts of Usable Protein California Complaint
April 7, 2022
Certain of the pancake and waffle mixes offered by Birch Benders, LLC are labeled as being with the specific amounts of protein they purport to contain, for example, “10g Protein.” But the complaint for this class action alleges that these amounts of protein are misleading, because they are not calculated according to the protein’s PDCAAS score.
Birch Bender Pancake Mix Amounts of Usable Protein California ComplaintCase Event History
Birch Bender Pancake Mix Amounts of Usable Protein California Complaint
April 7, 2022
Certain of the pancake and waffle mixes offered by Birch Benders, LLC are labeled as being with the specific amounts of protein they purport to contain, for example, “10g Protein.” But the complaint for this class action alleges that these amounts of protein are misleading, because they are not calculated according to the protein’s PDCAAS score.
Birch Bender Pancake Mix Amounts of Usable Protein California Complaint