Strawberry Pop-Tarts are woefully lacking in strawberries.
I like Pop-Tarts. They make a nice snack now and then, and they come in all kinds of wacky flavors. Have you ever tried the Froot Loops flavor? The similarity is uncanny. The most enduring flavors of Pop-Tarts are, of course, the fruit-filled ones, including strawberry, blueberry, and the infamous cherry (which I actually like fine). However, as a new lawsuit has alleged, the strawberry filling in a strawberry Pop-Tart may not actually be strawberry at all, or at least not enough strawberry to really count.
A woman named Anita Harris filed a formal lawsuit against Kellogg’s in the Southern District of Illinois on the grounds that strawberry-flavor Pop-Tarts don’t have enough strawberry in their fruit filling to actually be considered strawberry-flavored, with the major of their fruit content actually coming from apples and pears. There’s at least some truth to this, as the nutrion label on a box of strawberry frosted Pop-Tarts includes dried pears, dried apples, and red dye in addition to dried strawberries.
Kellogg's faces lawsuit over lack of real strawberries in Strawberry Pop-Tarts https://t.co/wr4VamURHB pic.twitter.com/Wl7jzfEoIE
— The Hill (@thehill) October 22, 2021
Harris claimed that this is an instance of false advertising, and that the red dye gives consumers a false impression that the snacks contain more strawberry than they actually do. “Whether a toaster pastry contains only strawberries or merely some strawberries … is basic front label information consumers rely on when making quick decisions at the grocery store,” the lawsuit reads. “Strawberries are the Product’s characterizing ingredient … (consumers) believe they are present in an amount greater than is the case.”
For this false advertising, Harris is seeking roughly $5 million in damages from Kellogg’s. Kellogg’s has not responded to any press requests for comment as of writing.