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Kellogg crackles under pressure from attorney’s ‘prove it’ letter
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‘Now helps support your child’s IMMUNITY” has been played across the front of Cocoa Krispies since May of this year. Apparently, Kellogg’s was banking on large numbers of scared, gullible parents overlooking the fact that the box contains tiny puffs of chocolate and instead thinking their child would be safe from the swine flu thanks to Snap, Crackle and Pop.
Last week, City Attorney Dennis Herrera issued a letter to Kellogg’s and to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asking for evidence to substantiate the immunity claim. (Here's a .pdf Download KELLOGG-LETTER.) Indeed, the cereal does claim to have added more vitamins A, C and E, which help boost immunity. However, because every food contains some nutrients (even Skittles, thank goodness), whether or not the additional vitamins would make a real difference in a child’s immunity is not at all clear.
On Wednesday, Kellogg’s announced that it will stop marketing the sugar globs as health food. This is a good thing.
Congratulations are in order for Herrera’s office, but before we go giving him all the credit for this idea allow me to point out that back in September East Bay resident Roy Werbel filed a similar lawsuit in federal court against the Kellogg Co. His allegation? That he was misled into believing that the loops in Froot Loops actually contained fruit. (.pdf of complaint here: Download Froot Loops Complaint.)
Just wait until someone figures out Golden Grahams are not made of gold.
BONUS: SFWeekly has been following the Froot Loop suit here, here, and here.
