Kellogg’s Cereal Sugar Content Class Action Moves Forward

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Litigation over the sugar content in Kellogg’s cereals will continue, now that a federal judge has largely denied the company’s motion to dismiss.

Last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh declined to dismiss some of the claims brought by plaintiff Stephen Hadley while dismissing others, allowing his Kellogg’s class action lawsuit to largely proceed.

According to the judge, Hadley’s allegations that defendant Kellogg Sales Company’s cereals contain an unhealthy amount of sugar are adequate to state a legal claim.

Koh determined that some of the representations on the Kellogg’s labeling at issue are “mere puffery,” a type of common exaggeration made in marketing that is not legally actionable. Phrases like “unbelievably nutritious” and “positively nutritious” qualify as puffery, the judge determined.

She dismissed Hadley’s claims to the extent they refer to that kind of language. The dismissals were rendered with prejudice, meaning Hadley will not be given a second chance to fix his pleadings regarding those claims.

Other phrases like “nutritious,” “essential nutrients” and “wholesome” can be evaluated against certain criteria, the judge determined, and for that reason claims relating to that language will move forward.

Hadley alleges in this Kellogg’s false advertising class action lawsuit that several varieties of Kellogg’s products are falsely represented as healthy foods. The packaging for these products is covered with terms like “Heart Healthy,” “Wholsesome Fiber,” and “Breakfast Brainpower.”

Hadley says he relied on these representations for years, eating Kellogg’s products under the impression that they were as healthy as their labels said they were.

But in contrast to representations on the label, Hadley argues, the sugar content in these Kellogg’s products is high enough to create serious health risks. He alleges that excess added sugar consumption increases the odds of developing obesity, hypertension, type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, and other chronic diseases.

Hadley’s Kellogg’s class action lawsuit takes issue with eight specific lines of Kellogg’s cereals and snack bars: Kellogg’s Raisin Bran, Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats, Kellogg’s Smart Start – Original Antioxidants, Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut, Nutri-Grain Cereal Bars, Nutri-Grain Soft-Baked Breakfast Bars, Nutri-Grain Oat & Harvest Bars, and Nutri-Grain Harvest Hearty Breakfast Bars.

According to Hadley, these products contain nine to 16 grams of sugar per serving, much of which is purposely added on top of the other ingredients’ naturally-occurring sugars. That’s enough added sugar to put him and his proposed Class Members at risk for serious health problems, he claims.

Hadley is also co-plaintiff, along with plaintiff Beverly Truxel, in a similar false advertising class action lawsuit against General Mills. The two plaintiffs are challenging the labeling on 52 kinds of General Mills breakfast cereals with allegedly high sugar content.

Hadley is represented by Jack Fitzgerald and Trevor Matthew Flynn of The Law Office of Jack Fitzgerald PC, as well as Melanie Rae Persinger of The Weston Firm.

The Kellogg’s Cereal Sugar Content Class Action Lawsuit is Hadley v. Kellogg Sales Company, Case No. 5:16-cv-04955, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Aug. 17, 2018, a federal judge certified three Classes in a Kellogg class action lawsuit which alleges that the company falsely advertises their Raisin Bran, Frosted Mini-Wheats, and Smart Start cereals as healthy when they have high amounts of added sugar.

UPDATE 2: On Feb. 20, 2020, a California federal judge rejected a proposed $31.5 million sugar content class action settlement struck between Kellogg’s and consumers, that would have ended claims that the company falsely advertised some of its products as healthy despite their high sugar content.

UPDATE 3: On July 20, 2020, consumers asked a judge to approve a revised version of a $20 million Kellogg’s cereal class action settlement.