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Food

30th Oct 2021

Woman sues Pop-Tarts for $5 million as they don’t have enough strawberries

Kieran Galpin

The Karen’s have upped their game

Kellogg is being sued for $5 million because a woman believes its “Whole Grain Frosted Strawberry” Pop-Tarts are actually deceiving customers.

Claiming that the product is misleading due to its lack of transparency, Elizabeth Russett of New York was so miffed about the filling that she is now suing the company, reports NBC.

“Strawberries are the Product’s characterizing ingredient, since their amount has a material bearing on price and consumer acceptance, and consumers expect they are present in an amount greater than other fruits,” reads the lawsuit.

“The Product’s common or usual name of ‘Whole Grain Frosted Strawberry Toaster Pastries,’ is false, deceptive, and misleading, because it contains mostly non-strawberry fruit ingredients.”

Russett says she would not have bought the pop tarts if she had known that the filling is not pure strawberry, or better yet, she would have paid less.

Funnily enough, this is one of two lawsuits in effect against Kellogg, with another woman in Illinois suing for similar reasons.

“A reasonable consumer knows that this is a toaster pastry a quarter-inch thick. We know we’re dealing with filling going into a pastry,” said Spencer Sheehan, the lawyer representing both women in their legal battle.

“Of that fruit filling, they should be able to expect that it’s mainly strawberry.”

He continued: “Consumers deserve to know that when they see something labeled as ‘strawberry,’ it mainly contains strawberry.

“Words have to have some meaning.”

But not everyone is on the side of the plaintiffs, with legal expert Adam Fox saying: “The claims asserted in these cases strike me as so weak that the courts confronting them may dismiss them as implausible.

“The notion that any plaintiff was moved to buy the products because of their belief that the products contained more strawberries than they actually do is likely to run into the reality that many, many consumers like the products because of the trusted brand with which they are associated or even just the taste or texture of the product.”

Kellogg told NBC News that they did not wish to comment.

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