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A Great Trend for the Organic Industry – Kashi Faces a Class-Action Lawsuit for Using Hazardous Substances in its “All-Natural” Products

Recently, I wrote about how ConAgra and its Wesson Oils division were facing a class action lawsuit because the company was claiming that its products were “all-natural” when, in fact, they contained genetically-modified ingredients, which are not “all-natural”.

This is an incredibly important case and could set a massive precedent in the food industry regarding GMOs.

Well, the good news continues.

A new class action lawsuit has been filed, this time against Kashi and its parent company Kellogg’s. The reason?

Kashi’s GoLean and TLC products are marketed as “all-natural” and state that they contain “nothing artificial” when, in fact, they are “composed almost entirely of synthetic and unnaturally processed ingredients”, so says the lawsuit.

But wait, it gets worse. MUCH WORSE.

The Kashi class action lawsuit alleges that some of these synthetic ingredients are even listed by the FDA as prescription drugs, irradiated substances, pesticides that are a by-product of uranium mining, and federally declared hazardous substances.

Here are just a few examples from the lawsuit of ingredients that have been included in Kashi’s products and claim to be “all natural” or contain “nothing artificial”:

Phytonadione (Vitamin K) has not been listed by the FDA as generally recognized as safe as a food additive. Its injectible form is listed as a prescription drug.

–  Bromelain is an enzyme derived from pineapple. According to the National Library of Medicine’s Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), its production requires acetone, which is a hazardous synthetic substance.

Sodium Molybdate has not been declared to be generally recognized as safe by the FDA. According to HSDB, molybdenum salts are by-products of uranium mining and can be found in fertilizers for leguminous crops, citing American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists.

And these are only three examples.

The class action lawsuit against Kashi and Kellogg’s lists 14 claims including making false, deceptive and misleading representations and omissions, negligence and negligent representation, false advertising, and conspiracy.

WHY SIGNIFICANT FOR ORGANIC CONSUMERS?

A logical question that one may be asking right now is “Ok, they’re cracking down on ‘all-natural’ advertising but what does that have to do with organic?”

The answer is very simple.

Many consumers mistakenly believe that “natural” is superior to and healthier than “organic”. Yet, this is absolutely not the case.

If, however, as a result of these lawsuits, “natural” is no longer unfairly exploited and people soon realize that “natural” doesn’t really mean much at all, organic food can only benefit.

They will soon realize that the healthiest food available is organic food.

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My Take: I hope many more of these class action lawsuit pop up against the industrial food companies, and I have a very, very strong feeling that they will. Why?

Because the class action lawyers smell big money, defendants with deep pockets and cases that can be won.

At the end of the day, I don’t really care about the true motive of these class action lawyers because the general public is going to benefit tremendously and major food companies will think twice before attempting to deceive consumers.

These lawsuits make me shake my head and ask: Why isn’t our government, namely the FDA and USDA, protecting its own citizens?

Unfortunately, I already know the answer.

The FDA and USDA are so beholden and influenced by major food companies that they would never think about cracking down on them, even if it meant consumers would be safer.

This is just more evidence that each person needs to take responsibility and educate themselves about every single thing that they are putting into their bodies because our government is simply not doing enough.

To read the entire class action lawsuit, click HERE (PDF file).

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