Gardetto’s Garlic Rye Chips Mislead Through Caramel Coloring Class Action

This class action concerns Gardetto’s Special Request Garlic Rye Chips, a snack product from General Mills Sales, Inc., consisting of brown garlic-flavored chips. The complaint alleges that the rye chips are meant to give the impression that they are made from whole grains, but that their first ingredient is white flour and they are merely darkened with caramel color.

Two classes have been defined for this action:

• The Illinois Class is all persons in Illinois who bought the product during the applicable statutes of limitations.
• The Consumer Fraud Multi-State Class is all persons in Iowa, Arkansas, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Utah who bought the product during the applicable statutes of representations.

The complaint notes, “The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines encourage consumers to make at least half of all their grains eaten be whole grains, to promoted fiber consumption.” Consumers these days prefer whole grains to refined grains and consider them to be a primary source of fiber.

The bran and germ are important, the complaint says, because they contain “fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, such as iron, zinc, folate, magnesium, thiamin, niacin, selenium, riboflavin, manganese, copper, vitamins A, and vitamin B6.”

Whole grains contain the entire grain seed or kernel, including the endosperm, bran, and germ. When the grain is refined, the bran and germ are removed, taking out most of the fiber and most of the other nutrients. The resulting flour may be enriched with some of the nutrients that were previously removed, such a thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and folic acid, but the fiber and most other substances cannot be added back in.

Unfortunately, consumers cannot tell what a grain product contains just by looking at it. The complaint alleges that consumers associated a darker color with whole grain.

The complaint alleges, “The Food and Drug Administration (‘FDA’) regularly cautions companies against misleading consumers about the whole grain content of foods, through statements, representations, and omissions.”

“According to the FDA,” the complaint claims, “when consumers believe a product is ‘whole grain,’ such as through its appearance, they will expect all of the grains used in that product to be whole grain, or ‘100 percent whole grain.’”

Page 5 of the complaint shows the ingredient panel for the garlic rye chips. Although their color is darker, the main ingredient listed is Enriched Flour, with Rye Flour coming in second. Also listed is Caramel Color.

Although the panel does not specify the percentage of enriched to whole flour, the complaint alleges, “The de minimis whole grain content is confirmed by the Nutrition Facts, which reveals 1g per serving of fiber, or 4% of the Daily Value.”

The complaint alleges that the product is worth materially less than consumers perceive because of the “false and misleading representations[.]”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Deceptive Advertising, Fraud, Misleads as to Nutritional Value, Negligent Misrepresentation