General Mill’s Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit Gushers landed the company a class-action lawsuit filed in California.
It alleges that General Mills misleads consumers with "fruit snacks" full of sugars, partially hydrogenated oil and dyes, UPI.com reported.
The lawsuit claims that while the labels on General Mills those snacks say they're "fruit flavored," "naturally flavored" and a "good source of vitamin C," the so-called fruit snacks are mostly sugars, artificial additives and potentially harmful artificial dyes.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California on behalf of a California mother by the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest.
"General Mills is basically dressing up a very cheap candy as if it were fruit and charging a premium for it," the center's litigation director, Steve Gardner, said in a release Friday. "General Mills is giving consumers the false impression that these products are somehow more wholesome, and charging more. It's an elaborate hoax on parents who are trying to do right by their kids."
The lawsuit contends the labeling of the fruit-flavored snacks violates various state laws, including Minnesota's Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act and several California laws covering misleading and deceptive advertising.
