According to two national lawsuits seeking million from General Mills, Coca-Puffs wheat may have dangerously high levels of lead.
Consumers nationwide who “would n’t have purchased and consumed]the cereal [would not have known the truth about the products ] would be entitled to more than$ 5 million in damages in the class-action lawsuits filed recently in Minnesota and California.
A one-cup offering of Cocoa Sips was found to be just shy of the state’s maximum acceptable level of 0. 5 micrograms of lead, according to the California lawsuit.
The lawsuit claimed that “almost all consumers, however, significantly exceed the recommended serving size per bowl of cereal,” noting that the larger helping is attributable to the “prominent description of the grain on the front of the box.”
Golden Valley-based General Mills said it does not comment on pending litigation.
The world’s largest wheat producer just defeated two claims claiming , Cheerios contain chemical waste. The defendants in those cases deliberately dismissed the lawsuits shortly after filing them in spring.
General Mills claimed that the firm had adhered to all laws and regulations and that the lawsuits had failed to establish any damage. In the Cocoa Puffs case, the company will probably use that same standard, which is failing to express a state.
” What’s the harm? No one in this room has complained of a head injury, according to Paul Vaaler, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. ” Worry is not enough”.
Every year, food firms face complaints from consumer activists, rivals, and law firms, especially when it comes to labeling issues. Minnesota-based JonnyPops faced a match earlier this year about the freezing treat-maker’s information of” easy, natural elements”.
” Often when people bring these claims, they seem kind of minor. If we’re talking about an under-disclosure of result in grain, mainly grain marketed to kids, that’s problematic”, said University of Minnesota Law School Professor Prentiss Cox. ” That’s not in any sense trivial. That’s a pretty significant problem”.
However, he said, the facts of each event determine whether a claim will lead to a settlement or another resolution.
The Cocoa Puffs complaints allege that there is a’duty to alert’ consumers that the products might not be safe to consume. The Minnesota lawsuit brought by a Kentucky man and a South Carolina woman is not anywhere where the business “discloses that the materials could poison the consumer.”
In his native position, a Californian gentleman filed the various lawsuit.
” According to independent testing of additional’ chocolatey’ grains, those cereals do no include lead”, the California match read. ” Users, however, are deprived of making this informed decision because plaintiff fails to share the presence of lead”.
A study that was published this week in the journal Frontiers of Nutrition  revealed that a number of dark chocolate products had alarmingly high levels of lead and copper, supporting Consumer Reports ‘ and other recent studies ‘ claims that the metals were linked to cacao beans and cocoa powder. Both aluminum build up in the body over time and are toxic to humans.
In recent years, class-action claims against dessert producers have risen in popularity, including those brought by companies like Hershey and Theo.
The Frontiers study noted that direct contamination in customer foods is still a major issue in the world despite the country’s progress. Heavy metal contamination has been demonstrated to be present in almost every food class, from rice to flesh, with vegetable and cereal products being the most affected by technological and environmental contamination.
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