Court Rules Against General Mills Motion to Dismiss, Says It's Reasonable Consumers Wouldn't Consider Glyphosate-Containing Nature Valley Granola Bars 'Natural'

On Monday, Moms Across America, Organic Consumers Association, and Beyond Pesticides announced that the District of Columbia Superior Court rejected General Mills’ motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the three nonprofits against the maker of Nature Valley granola bars. That’s a small win, but a win nonetheless.

Non-Profits Sue General Mills for False and Misleading Use of ‘Natural’

That ruling upholds the right of non-profits to bring these types of complaints against corporations and “reinforces the notion that consumers can reasonably expect a product labeled “100% Natural” to be free of herbicides.”¹ As it should.

In 2016, the three non-profit groups sued General Mills for attempting to mislead the public (I have a friend who bought those granola bars for her son for a year. She was mad.) by labeling Nature Valley granola bars as “Made with 100% NATURAL whole grain OATS” after tests revealed the presence of glyphosate.

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Organic Consumers Association’s international director Ronnie Cummins said about the suit,

“This is a huge win for consumers. in making this ruling, the judge reinforced the right of consumers to have reasonable expectations about what a company means by ‘natural.’ The ‘natural’ food industry is estimated at $90 billion a year. By slapping the word ‘natural’ on products that contain pesticides and other unnatural substances, corporations deceive consumers, and cut into the market share for authentically labeled healthy and certified organic products.” ²

A couple of key findings from the DC Superior Court ruling:³

The Court rejected General Mills’ argument that courts should defer to the FDA on possible future ruling re: “natural” food labeling (that means the court continues to decide what is or isn’t misleading to consumers).
The Court noted it doesn’t seem likely the FDA will issue a ruling on what “natural” means anytime soon (this means many food producers seeking to avoid liability for their misrepresentations have to deal now).
The Court held that a reasonable jury could find that General Mills’ “Made With 100% Natural Whole Grain Oats” claims were misleading to consumers.(This one just seems so obvious.)

Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America, said, “When a customer chooses a food product that says 100% Natural on the packaging, they do so because the food manufacturer has communicated to them, with that claim, that their products are without harmful, man-made chemicals. We are very pleased that this case will be heard and misleading labeling will be addressed.” ⁴