Post Foods Class Action Says ‘Healthy’ Cereals Contain Too Much Sugar

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UPDATE 4: November 2020, the Post Foods cereal class action lawsuit website is live. Find out your legal rights as a Class Member.

UPDATE 3: On March 9, 2020, a federal judge certified a class action lawsuit filed against Post Foods by customers who claim the company’s cereal sugar content misleads consumers.

UPDATE 2: On Oct. 21, 2019, Kellogg’s agreed to pay $20 million to resolve claims that they falsely advertised their sugar-filled cereals as healthy.

UPDATE: On June 28, 2019, Post attempted to have the class action lawsuit that claims its cereals contain too much sugar to be considered “healthy” dismissed.

Post Foods LLC has been hit with a false advertising class action lawsuit alleging their cereals contain an excessive amount of sugar, despite being advertised as a healthy food choice.

Plaintiffs Debbie Krommenhock and Stephen Hadley filed the 154-page false advertising class action lawsuit in California federal court on Aug. 29.

They accuse Post Foods of labeling cereals with high sugar content with false claims that the cereals are healthy.

“The scientific evidence is compelling: Excessive consumption of added sugar is toxic to the human body,” the excess sugar class action lawsuit states. “Experimentally sound, peer-reviewed studies and meta-analyses convincingly show that consuming excess sugar—any amount above approximately 5% of daily caloric intake—greatly increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, liver disease, and a wide variety of other chronic morbidity.”

The Post cereal class action lawsuit takes issue with phrases such as “whole grain,” “fiber,” “nutritious,” “wholesome” and “healthy” that appear on cereal products in which sugar makes up significantly more than five percent of the calorie content.

According to the Post class action lawsuit, cereals that have such excessively high sugar content cannot be described as a healthy food choice because of the numerous health risks associated with sugary diets.

The plaintiffs want to put an end to Post’s practice of using deceptive health and wellness claims to market cereals with high sugar content.

The plaintiffs name several varieties of cereals that they say are deceptively labeled as healthy, including Post Selects/Great Grains cereals, Honey Bunches of Oats, Post Shredded Wheat, Post Good Mornings, Raisin Bran, Bran Flakes, among others.

Krommenhock and Hadley both claim that they purchased Post cereals because they believed they were a healthier cereal option than other cereals on the market.

According to the Post class action lawsuit, they acted reasonably by relying on Post’s health and wellness marketing, which they say Post intentionally placed on the labels in order to induce consumers into purchasing their products.

The plaintiffs state that they would not have chosen to purchase Post cereals products if they had known that the products were not as healthy as represented.

By filing the sugar content class action lawsuit, Krommenhock and Hadley seek to represent a Class of California consumers who, within the past four years, have purchased high-sugar Post cereals bearing health and wellness claims.

The cereal labeling class action lawsuit charges Post Foods with violations of California’s False Advertising Law, Consumers Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law.

The plaintiffs have asked the court to order Post to engage in a corrective advertising campaign. They also seek injunctive relief, restitution, interest, attorneys’ fees and costs, and all other relief deemed appropriate by the court.

Krommenhock and Hadley are represented by Jack Fitzgerald, Trevor M. Flynn and Melanie Persinger of The Law Office of Jack Fitzgerald PC.

The Post Cereal Sugar Content Class Action Lawsuit is Debbie Krommenhock and Stephen Hadley v. Post Foods LLC, Case No. 16-cv-04958, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.