Consumers Misled as to Strawberry Content of Kashi Soft-Baked Breakfast Bars, Class Action Claims

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A proposed class action claims consumers have been misled with regard to the strawberry content in Kashi Sales, LLC’s “Ripe Strawberry” Soft Baked Breakfast Bars.

According to the 14-page case out of Illinois, while representations on the product’s label lead consumers to believe that the breakfast bars are primarily flavored by strawberries, the bars’ fruit filling, unbeknownst to buyers, contains an even greater amount of apple and pear ingredients.

“The representations are misleading because they give consumers the impression the fruit filling contains more strawberries than it does,” the complaint states.

Per the lawsuit, consumers prefer strawberries to other fruits for reasons that include taste, texture and adaptability, not to mention the health benefits linked with the “nutrient dense” food. Strawberries, according to the case, are also one of the most expensive fruits and cost as much as twice the price of apples and pears, the suit says.

Nonetheless, the suit argues that using only strawberry ingredients in a breakfast bar’s fruit filling, as opposed to supplementing it with apples and pears, would only add a few cents per product and “is not a rare or pricey delicacy such that it is unreasonable to expect this.”

Per the suit, Kashi represents through pictures and statements on its website and in marketing materials that its soft-baked breakfast bars are predominantly flavored with strawberry ingredients. In truth, however, the product’s fruit filling is composed of mostly pear and apple ingredients—a fact that is disclosed only in the breakfast bars’ ingredients list, according to the case:

The lawsuit contends that the product’s name, “Ripe Strawberry – Soft Baked Breakfast Bars,” and pictures of fresh strawberries on the food’s label are misleading because they give buyers the impression that the breakfast bars contain more strawberries than they actually do. Moreover, Kashi furthers this apparent deception by using “elderberry juice concentrate for color”—that is, to cause the filling of pears and apples to look more like strawberries “even though they are not strawberries and cannot substitute for strawberries to consumers,” the case alleges.

The suit claims the Kashi breakfast bars lack “an authentic, and expected strawberry taste” given they contain more apple and pear ingredients than strawberries. The lawsuit additionally charges that the defendant’s claim that the breakfast bars are “Made with Wildflower Honey” is also misleading given the product contains more sugar than honey.

Per the case, Kashi has misrepresented the Ripe Strawberry Soft Baked Breakfast Bars through “affirmative statements, half-truths, and omissions,” and ultimately caused consumers to pay more for the product than they otherwise would.

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