Perfect Bar, LLC labels its snack products as containing specific amounts of protein, such as “15g Protein” on its Dark Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Perfect Bar. But the complaint claims that the bars do not provide the amount of protein advertised on the labels, and that Perfect Bar avoids admitting this fact by not providing the “percent daily value” of protein on the Nutrition Facts panel.
The class for this action is all persons in the US who bought the products between April 22, 2018 and the present. A California Subclass has also been defined, for persons in the above class in California.
Proteins are not all equal in their ability to provide nutrition to human beings, because they do not all contain equal amounts of the essential amino acids. The complaint alleges, “When a human body uses up the least prevalent essential amino acid from a food product, protein synthesis shuts down and all of the remaining amino acides from that protein source degrade mostly into waste.”
The quality of proteins is measured by something called a Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid (PDCAAS) score, which can range from 0.0 to 1.0. This is multiplied by the quantity of protein to show how much protein is truly available for human nutritional needs.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that companies that want to make protein claims on their labels must also provide information about protein quality, expressed as a percent daily value (%DV) of protein on the Nutrition Facts panel. This takes the daily reference value (DRV) for protein as 50 grams. The panel must specify what percent of the daily value is provided by a serving of the product.
For example, a product that contains 10 grams of protein with a PDCAAS of 0.5 would actually provide only 5 grams of usable protein; compared to the DRV of 50 grams, the Nutrition Panel would show a %DV of 10% (5 grams out of 50 grams).
The amounts of protein posted on the front labels of the Perfect Bars are stated as totals, without any information on protein quality, the complaint alleges. “The primary protein source in [Perfect Bar’s] products is nut protein (including peanuts, cashews, and almonds). Nuts are low[-]quality protein with a PDCAAS score of between 0.4 and 0.5, which means that only 40-50% of the protein in “Perfect Bar’s products is actually available to support human protein needs.”
The complaint alleges that the Perfect Bars thus provide perhaps “less than half the protein consumers reasonably expect to receive based on the label. This is misleading.” It is not corrected by an statement of %DV in the Nutrition Facts panel.
The complaint therefore says, “The protein claims on the front of those packages, such as ‘7g Protein’ made on the Perfect Peanut Butter Cup Dark Chocolate flavor, are unlawful in violation of parallel state and federal laws because [Perfect Bar] did not comply with the regulatory requirements for making a protein claim.”
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
Perfect Bar Snacks Amount of Protein in a Serving Complaint
April 22, 2022
Perfect Bar, LLC labels its snack products as containing specific amounts of protein, such as “15g Protein” on its Dark Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Perfect Bar. But the complaint claims that the bars do not provide the amount of protein advertised on the labels, and that Perfect Bar avoids admitting this fact by not providing the “percent daily value” of protein on the Nutrition Facts panel.
Perfect Bar Snacks Amount of Protein in a Serving ComplaintCase Event History
Perfect Bar Snacks Amount of Protein in a Serving Complaint
April 22, 2022
Perfect Bar, LLC labels its snack products as containing specific amounts of protein, such as “15g Protein” on its Dark Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Perfect Bar. But the complaint claims that the bars do not provide the amount of protein advertised on the labels, and that Perfect Bar avoids admitting this fact by not providing the “percent daily value” of protein on the Nutrition Facts panel.
Perfect Bar Snacks Amount of Protein in a Serving Complaint