Jimmy Dean “Whole Grain” English Muffin Breakfast Sandwich Illinois Class Action

The Hillshire Brands Company makes a line of Jimmy Dean Delights breakfast sandwiches. The bread for these sandwiches is supposedly a whole grain English muffin, but the complaint for this class action alleges that the English muffin is made primarily of refined flour, which provides fewer nutritional benefits.

The class for this action is all persons in Illinois who bought the product during the applicable statutes of limitations.

Page 1 of the complaint shows an image of the front of the product box with the purported English muffin sandwich. On the package are the words, “Made with Whole Grain*.”

The complaint says, “The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that at least half of the grains in a healthy diet should be whole grains.” Consumers “are aware of the healthfulness of whole grains relative to non-whole grains.”

Whole grains include the complete grain seed, including the endosperm, bran, and germ. The bran and germ offer important nutrients, including dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. These may include iron, zinc, folate, magnesium, thiamin, niacin, selenium, riboflavin, manganese copper, vitamin A, and vitamin B6.

Non-whole grains have been processed or refined to take out the bran and germ. In doing this, the refiner takes out the fiber and most of the nutrients. Some food manufacturers who used refined or “white” flour enrich it by adding back in some of the nutrients that were removed, like iron and B vitamins. Refined-grain flour is therefore sometimes called “enriched” flour.

Enriched flour contains only the endosperm and is primarily starch. The enrichment process does not add back in all nutrients; it leaves out things like vitamin E, vitamin B6, vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, copper, calcium, and selenium. The fiber is also not replaced.

The first item listed on the ingredient panel for the Jimmy Dean sandwich is “Enriched Wheat Flour.” After that comes “Water,” and only after that comes “Whole Grain Wheat Flour.”

The complaint alleges, “The amount of ‘Whole Grain Wheat Flour’ in the Product is slightly above two percent of the total weight of ingredients used in the English muffin portion of the product.”

Also, the complaint notes that the product has only two grams of dietary fiber per serving and claims that this is “consistent with a food with a de minimis amount of whole grain.”

Under US Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules, the complaint says, “[t]o make a whole grain claim … a product must contain a minimal quantity of the whole grain component—at least 8 grams of dry whole grain per labeled serving size of the meat or poultry product as declared in the nutrition facts panel on the label.” However, the bottom of the side panel admits that “*This product provides 5g of whole grain in a 1 sandwich serving.”

The complaint therefore alleges, “Thus, the Product does not contain 8g whole grain per serving, nor is the bread part predominantly whole grain…”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Contains Too Little of Featured Ingredients, Deceptive Advertising, Deceptive Labels