General Mills sees lawsuit against “natural” label on Nature Valley bars

As reported by this blog, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a consumer advocacy group that takes action against false custom labelings and advertising from major companies. In addition to filing a lawsuit against for Pfizer for the labels on Centrum vitamin and supplement bottles, the group is supporting two California mothers who have taken action against General Mills over the actions of its subsidiary Nature Valley, which includes claims on its custom labels that assert its products are made from 100 percent natural ingredients.

According to CSPI’s press release, the granola bars contain artificial ingredients such as high-fructose corn syrup, high-maltose corn syrup and maltodextrin. The two corn syrup ingredients are used as sweeteners with maltodextrin functioning as a thickening agent, according to Huffington Post.

“Few companies would like to brag that their ingredients are ‘fresh from the factory,’ but that’s exactly where high-maltose corn syrup and maltodextrin come from,” said CSPI assistant director of litigation Seema Rattan. “General Mills is misleading consumers when it suggests otherwise.”

One of the mothers suing is Amy McKendrick whose daughter was diagnosed with several mental disorders when she was 6-years old. As a means to help control her conditions, McKendrick has eliminated all food with dyes or processed ingredients from her daughter’s diet, says the New York Times.

McKendrick had been allowing her daughter to eat Nature Valley bars for quite some time and, while most of her ailments subsided or were effectively controlled, some still remained, causing the mother to conduct further research and uncover the processed ingredients used in the bars.

While the word “natural” has no governing body to regulate its use, it’s still important for producers to remain true to their customers by designing accurate color labels for their products. This can be done quite effectively with a Primera LX900 series color label printer.