Abbott Laboratories has been named as the defendant of a lawsuit filed on December 26th in California. They are representing purchasers of Similac and PediaSure nationwide. The lawsuit claims that these companies’ toddler milk products are nutritionally unnecessary, despite the marketing claims that they help to advance development of children over 1 year old.
The U.S. FDA has established nutritional and labeling standards for infant formula, these regulations apply only to products intended for children under 12 months of age. This leaves a major gap in the marketing rules for products beyond 12 months of age – a gap which the baby food industry has long exploited.
As noted in the 2023 Lancet Series on Breastfeeding, billions of dollars have been devoted to persuasive advertisements online in order to influence families and policy makers that commercial milk formulas (CMFs) are as good for an infant’s health as breastfeeding is (Rollins et al., 2023). The marketing tactics of CMF companies exploit emotions, aspirations, and misleading science to generate sales at the expense of the health and rights of families, women, and children.
As noted in the lawsuit, the ingredients added to these products are knowingly unhealthy. “The drinks’ primary ingredients—sugar, corn syrup, vegetable oils, and highly processed carbohydrates—render Abbott’s health marketing claims dangerously false. While this is true for all children Abbott targets, it is particularly egregious for children under the age of two, given the medical consensus that children this young should not consume any added sugars.”
Although neither plaintiff in the case claim their children were harmed by Similac or PediaSure, they state that they would not have repeatedly purchased the products over the years had the labeling and advertising been truthful. They seek compensation for themselves and other parents or caregivers who purchased either product.
A full copy of the lawsuit can be found here: https://www.aboutlawsuits.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-12-26-toddlermilk-ulrich-class-action.pdf