CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) – Nestle faces a class action lawsuit that claims it misleads parents when it says its milk-based formula is nutritionally appropriate.
Melissa Garza filed suit June 14 in Chicago federal court through attorney Spencer Sheehan. It targets Gerber’s Good Start Grow products for children between 12 and 24 months old. The suit contains a section titled “Nourishing toddler tummies.”
Good Start Grow products are fortified with vitamins D and E as well as iron to help fill gaps in nutrition for toddlers, as recommended by the formula trade group Infant Nutrition Council of America.
“However, a global consensus of pediatric health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on nutrition and the relevant subcommittee of the World Health Organization reached the opposite conclusion,” the suit says.
“These groups advise that beyond 12 months, children’s nutritional needs should be met with whole cow’s milk, water and healthy whole foods as part of a balanced diet, and that transition formula “is not recommended.”
Such transition formulas were introduced to deal with declining sales since mothers have increasingly chosen breastfeeding, the suit says.
“Companies like Defendant capitalize on consumers’ familiarity and acceptance of federally approved infant formula and continue selling it to them when their children are no longer infants, defined as zero to twelve months old,” the suit says.