![]() ![]() General Mills declined to comment on the litigation. Their claim, said lead attorney Kim Richman, is much simpler-that oats can’t be “100% natural” if they’re grown with a synthetic pesticide, and that calling them as much misleads consumers. The new litigation against General Mills isn’t focused on glyphosate’s health effects, whatever they may be. did not respond to a request for comment but told the New York Times that its oats go through a cleansing process and are safe for human consumption, and that while it didn’t add glyphosate, its farmers might apply it before harvest. Some of the same attorneys behind Wednesday’s suits brought a similar action in May against PepsiCo over traces of glyphosate allegedly found in Quaker oatmeal. The World Health Organization last year dubbed glyphosate “probably carcinogenic,” but in May, a report by the WHO and the United Nations concluded it “is unlikely to be genotoxic at anticipated dietary exposures.” In other words, glyphosate can hurt you, but not from how you’re probably consuming it. But the suit contends that’s still higher than should be allowed because the pesticide likely comes from the “100% natural” oats. At 0.45 parts per million, the level it says they contain is well below the Environmental Protection Agency’s 30 ppm limit. The products contain, it says, small amounts of the common pesticide glyphosate. “The oat products at issue are not ‘made with 100% natural whole grain oats,'” the D.C. The Sweet & Salty Nut granola bars, for example, come with text that says they are “made with 100% natural whole grain oats.”Īccording to lawsuits filed Wednesday in New York, California, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C., that claim is deceptive. Yet it has reappeared-in a different place, outside the scope of that settlement-on many Nature Valley products. ![]() The phrase soon disappeared from its spot on the box right under the brand name. In 2014, General Mills settled a class-action lawsuit and agreed not to label its Nature Valley granola bars “100% natural” if they contained high-fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, or several other highly processed ingredients. New lawsuits filed Wednesday target what they say are small amounts of the world’s most popular pesticide in granola bars ostensibly “made with 100% natural whole grain oats.” The “natural” claims haven’t vanished they’ve just become less conspicuous-and as the claims have evolved, so has the litigation over whether they’re deceptive. “Natural,” once the descriptor of choice, is being crowded out after years of lawsuits. Stroll down your supermarket’s aisles, and you may notice some new words on the cereal and snack boxes. ![]()
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