Too Much Sugar in Happy Baby, Happy Tot “Healthy” Snacks California Class Action

What makes a food product healthy or unhealthy? The complaint for this class action alleges that Nurture, Inc., which does business as Happy Family Brands, states or implies that some of its baby and toddler foods are “healthy,” but that at least some of these products are not healthy because they contain “high amounts of free and added sugar,” which is linked to negative health outcomes.

The class for this action is all persons who, on or after April 22, 2018, bought in California, for household use and not for resale or distribution, the baby or tot snacks at issue in this case:

• Happy Baby Organic Greek Yogis
• Happy Baby Organic Creamies
• Happy Tot Pouches

Through the labeling of the products, the complaint alleges, “Nurture represents expressly or implicitly that the products are healthy, meaning beneficial rather than detrimental to physical health.”

The complaint quotes some of the representations it claims Nurture makes about its Baby and Tot snacks:

• “We are a team of Real Parents, Pediatricians & Nutritionists on a mission to bring health and happiness to our little ones and the planet”
• “Our team creates nutritious meals and snacks”
• “Healthy start”
• “Gives your tot important nutrients to help support a healthy brain”

According to the complaint, these representations make parents think that the snacks are healthy choices of food to feed to babies and toddlers, and that the snacks are “the types of food that, if consumed regularly, will not detriment health.”

Pages 3 and 4 of the complaint show the fronts and backs of the packaging of some of these snacks and the representations found there.

But the complaint alleges, “These representations, however, are false or at least highly misleading because the Baby/Tot Snacks contain high amounts of free and added sugar, which causes metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and liver disease, and is especially harmful to infants and toddlers.”

The complaint also explains something called the “food matrix” which has to do with the form in which a food is ingested. For example, it takes the example of an apple, claiming that “an apple, while perhaps a healthy food choice when it is whole, is transformed into a decidedly unhealthy food once processed into juice or puree.” Processing foods into purees, the complaint alleges, destroys their fiber, which prevents the food from protecting the liver from the effects of sugars.

Furthermore, it alleges that parents should limit children’s sugar consumption to 10% of calories per day, while the snacks contain more than that: “Specifically, more than 25% of the calories in the Happy Baby Snacks come from added sugars, and up to 64% of their calories come from free sugars. Similarly, between 30% and 63% of the Happy Tot Pouches’ calories come from free sugars.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Deceptive Advertising, Deceptive Labels, False Health Claims, Too Much Sugar