Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit Snacks Lawsuit: Not Nutritious! Plus Snack Video Commercial

Surprise, surprise! Fruit Roll-Ups are not nutritious or good for your health, but a lawsuit over the nutritional value of the fruit snack seems a little extreme. Yes, it's true, a Brooklyn woman named Payton McClure has filed a class-action lawsuit against General Mills, stating that she is a life-long consumer of their popular fruit roll-up snack product and that the packaging wording is misleading.

Fruit snacks packages claim to be “fruit” and according to McClure and her lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court, consumers like her get the impression that the product is nutritious, naturally flavored, low fat, and a good source of Vitamin C. (check out article about McClure's lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court and her plans to sue against Fruit Roll-Ups as of Tuesday at Reuters online).

I never was under the impression that Fruit Roll-Ups or any fruit snacks were a good substitute for real fruit. In fact, the product label on the side of the package clearly lists all its ingredients including fat content, calories, sugars, percent of daily recommended amount of Vitamin C, and the partially hydrogenated oil in the snack. Which makes me question, can Payton McClure read? Just because you want to believe something is good for you or because it is low in fat, does not mean a product or food is healthy. And any food can be unhealthy in severely large quantities, but eaten in moderation can provide a healthier alternative snack compared to say… POTATO CHIPS. I really wonder what McClure’s motivation is behind filing a lawsuit against General Mills over the nutritional value of fruit snacks other than to gain monetary compensation. Did she spend all day in the grocery store reviewing product advertisements and wording to compare them to their percentage of accuracy in their description? Does she think that hot dogs are made from dogs or that refried beans are fried, twice??

McClure, if you wanted all-fruit bars made with 100% real fruit, why not try to eat real fruit like an apple or banana? Or you could try these really awesome whole fruit bars that I eat from the grocery store: Power-of-fruit. They are in the frozen food aisle, and check it out: the box label under ingredients only lists out names of fruits in the ingredients! Nothing else!

Check out this commercial for Fruit Roll-Ups and let me know how misleading you think the product is. Basically all I see is a bunch of kids having fun and shouting that they “love Fruit Roll-Up!”