In a sweet win for food-and-beverage defendants, the Eastern District of California dismissed, with prejudice, a putative class action challenging the labeling of Carnation Breakfast Essentials Nutritional Drink products in Eric Testori v. Nestle Health Science US Holdings Inc. The plaintiff alleged that defendant misled consumers by marketing the product as a “nutritional drink” and emphasizing “10g protein” on the product’s front label, while failing to disclose with equal prominence that the product’s first two ingredients were water and sugar and that it contained 11 grams of sugar per serving. According to the plaintiff, those front-label statements created the misleading impression that the product was a balanced, healthful breakfast option, even though it was allegedly a sweetened beverage “primarily made of water and sugar.”
