The Real Reason Perfect Bar Is Being Sued
All proteins are proteins, but some proteins have more protein than others. That's essentially the argument made in the class action lawsuit filed against Perfect Bar on April 27. Top Class Actions explains that the complaint is specifically against the protein bar company's dark chocolate chip peanut butter flavor. On its packaging, the bar claims to have 15 grams of protein. However, the protein in the bar comes from nuts, such as those found in the peanut butter. The human body can only absorb 40% to 50% of these proteins. So, the complaint argues, Perfect Bar's dark chocolate chip peanut butter bar only provides the consumer with around 7.5 grams of protein. The suit makes a similar claim about the company's peanut butter cups.
Of course, Perfect Bar could offer the counterargument that the amount of protein that protein bars contain doesn't necessarily mean the amount of protein the consumer would actually absorb. However, the lawsuit points out that the FDA prohibits manufacturers from giving misleading information about the percentage of a nutrient, which could potentially make Perfect Bar's protein labeling illegal.
Perfect Bar may not lose this case
If recent lawsuits against protein bars are anything to go by, however, it seems unlikely that this case will result in any major ramifications for Perfect Bar. In 2018, the brand was hit with a different lawsuit claiming that its products' added sugar content was too high for them to be marketed as healthy, as Top Class Actions covered at the time. However, Perkins Coie noted in its end-of-year roundup of food litigation news that the court dismissed the case, saying, "Reasonable purchasers could decide for themselves how healthy or not the sugar content would be."
Perfect Bar could make a similar case this time around, arguing that since it's widely known that nut-sourced proteins are not the most efficient, purchasers could independently figure out how much protein they'll actually absorb from Perfect Bars. This was the result of a 2019 lawsuit against Tiger's Milk, which complained that it did not have enough protein to call itself "protein rich." However, as Court Listener records, the plaintiff withdrew the complaint a few months later. The reason for doing so wasn't stated. Still, the history doesn't inspire promise for this new Perfect Bar lawsuit.