Category: Consumer law

According to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), a comprehensive Food Standards Code exists to regulate claims, but multiple bodies share responsibility for enforcing nutrition and health claims in Australia, creating a multi-layered oversight system. This ensures consumer protection and truthful advertising in the food industry.

Several high-profile complaints have targeted Chobani yogurt over the last decade, leading to class-action lawsuits regarding false advertising and allegations of chemical contamination. These complaints follow an earlier voluntary recall in 2013 due to customer reports of mold and illness.

According to a 2024 review, 55 countries have tax policies and 23 have sales bans related to controlling energy drink consumption among children and adolescents. Illegal energy drinks are not a single product but can be standard beverages sold illegally or those with banned or mislabeled ingredients.

In 2024, the popular prebiotic soda brand Poppi faced an $8.9 million class-action lawsuit settlement over claims that its 'gut healthy' marketing was misleading. This legal action, coupled with a separate influencer marketing controversy, has become widely known as the Poppi scandal.

In October 2017, a class-action lawsuit was filed against KeVita Inc., and its parent company, PepsiCo, for allegedly misleading consumers about the probiotic content of its kombucha beverages. The case centered on claims that the company falsely advertised its kombucha as containing 'live probiotics' even though the product was pasteurized, a process that kills live cultures.

In April 2021, a class action lawsuit was filed against Ancient Brands, LLC (Ancient Nutrition), alleging that its Bone Broth Protein products misled consumers about the actual quality and amount of digestible protein. This marked one of several legal challenges faced by the company in recent years related to its marketing and product claims.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children and adolescents should avoid energy drinks entirely. This expert health advice contrasts with the fact that federal laws in the United States do not explicitly prevent anyone from buying an energy drink, creating a complex and confusing landscape for consumers.

The global energy drink industry was valued at over $85 billion in 2021, and its products are easily found on store shelves nationwide. Despite this widespread availability and marketing, many consumers, especially parents and teens, are confused and wonder: are energy drinks 18+ in the USA?

While federal law prohibits the interstate sale of raw milk for human consumption, states retain the authority to set their own regulations for intrastate sales. This legal framework has created a patchwork of rules across the country, making it crucial for consumers to know in which states is raw milk legal and under what specific conditions.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it is illegal to sell raw milk for human consumption across state lines. However, the legality of whether raw milk is illegal to sell in stores varies significantly within state borders, with a patchwork of laws and regulations governing its sale.