Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Halfday Tonics Misrepresents Prebiotic Tea Gut-Health Benefits

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Halfday Tonics falsely and misleadingly markets its prebiotic iced teas, given that a consumer would need to drink an unreasonable number of cans daily for weeks in order to potentially experience any of the advertised gut microbiome benefits.

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The 34-page Halfday Tonics false advertising lawsuit contends that although the beverage manufacturer touts the purported healthfulness of its canned teas with claims that the products offer “prebiotic benefits” that are “good for your gut,” “study after study” shows that the drinks’ proprietary blend of soluble fiber—cassava root fiber, fructan fiber and agave inulin—only provides the advertised benefits “when ingested every day for multiple weeks.”

Crucially, the suit says, consumers would also need to ingest “significantly more” than the six grams of dietary fiber proclaimed on product labels in order to experience any noticeable gut-health benefits.

“This means that consumers would have to drink multiple cans of Tea every day for multiple weeks to reap any meaningful benefits to their gut health,” the class action lawsuit summarizes, claiming that if a consumer drank that much Halfday Tonics tea, it could actually diminish their gut health.

Per the suit, Halfday Tonics’ primary selling point for its prebiotic teas is that the beverages contain prebiotic fiber, a form of dietary fiber that the body cannot fully digest but feeds helpful gut bacteria, supporting a healthy microbiome in the stomach. Prebiotics are “essential” to good health and can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit relays that Halfday Tonics’ claims that its iced tea beverages contain enough prebiotic fiber to benefit gut health are misleading at best, not only given the number of cans a consumer would need to drink to experience the advertised benefits, but also because of the amount of sugar in each can.

The suit stresses that the amount of sugar a consumer would ingest from drinking multiple cans of Halfday Tonics tea each day would “counteract” any gut-health benefits. Per the suit, each can of Halfday Tonics prebiotic tea contains three to five grams of added sugar.

The lawsuit says that Halfday Tonics repeatedly makes the false claims at issue on its website, packaging, and in promotional materials, much to the detriment of consumers who seek genuinely healthy products. Consequently, the lawsuit says that “Halfday’s message is clear: drink this can of tea and your gut microbiome will benefit.”

The case states that one can of tea contains only six grams of prebiotic fiber and that Halfday does not disclose to consumers how many teas they should drink to reap the supposed benefits. At any rate, the suit continues, six grams of prebiotic fiber is not enough to impart a lasting benefit to the gut microbiome, the filing says.

According to the lawsuit, a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition tested whether fructan would have a noticeable difference in the microbiomes of people who did not regularly consume enough dietary fiber. The suit states that the study gave participants 16 grams of powdered prebiotic fructan powder daily for three weeks, but found that there was no overall improvement in participants’ microbiomes.

Similarly, the case refers to a study of agave inulin in which participants were given doses of five or seven-and-a-half grams of agave inulin daily for three weeks. The lawsuit says that the study showed that agave inulin does not create a “scientifically significant positive change” in participants’ levels of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA). The suit says that while SCFAs have a positive impact on gut microbiomes, consuming small amounts has little to no impact on gut microbiome health.

“If 7.5 grams of agave inulin cannot improve gut health, then [Halfday’s] tea, which contains even less, certainly cannot,” the complaint argues.

The lawsuit further states that studies of cassava root, the final prebiotic ingredient, can only benefit gut health “when consumed in high quantities on a daily basis” over a long period of time.

“Drinking one, or even several, of Halfday’s teas does not mimic these conditions,” the filing says.

The case also cites a professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who stated simply, “If people are concerned about their microbiome, they need to eat vegetables.”

The Halfday Tonics class action lawsuit seeks to cover all individuals in the United States who purchased the tea within the relevant statute of limitations period.

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