Brad’s Plant Based Facing Class Action Over Allegedly Misleading Protein Content Claims

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A proposed class action claims the labels of certain Brad’s Plant Based products are unlawful and misleading since the snacks contain less usable protein than advertised.

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The 43-page lawsuit says that although a number of Brad’s Plant Based kale, veggie chips, veggie flats and other snacks are labeled with specific protein claims, the products’ packaging unlawfully lacks an accompanying statement that relays as a “percent of daily value” (%DV) how much of that protein is actually usable to support nutrition. 

Because some proteins are more usable and digestible than others, they are not equal in their ability to support human health, the case stresses. Had the company included a percent-of-daily-value statement for protein per serving, as required by law, for each of the Brad’s Plant Based snacks at issue, it would have shown that the products contain “low quality proteins” that “actually provide far less protein to humans” than advertised, the suit alleges.

Per the complaint, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) method for calculating protein quality—called the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS)—determines how much protein in a food product is actually “available” to provide nutrition. This is called the “corrected amount of protein per serving,” the suit relays.

Through the PDCAAS method, a protein source’s amino acid profile—the building blocks of protein—are combined with the protein’s percent digestibility to calculate a “score” from 0.0-1.0, which signifies the “actual amount of protein the food provides nutritionally when multiplied by raw protein quantity,” the filing explains.

Under FDA regulations, companies like Brad’s Plant Based whose food products are labeled with a protein claim must use the PDCAAS method to calculate the %DV for protein, a percentage which “accounts for both protein quantity and protein quality,” the lawsuit says. The products must also bear a statement, in the form of a %DV score, of the “corrected amount of protein per serving” in the nutrition facts panel, the suit relays.

By purportedly failing to meet the foregoing label requirements, the defendant has made “unlawful” protein claims on the front of its products’ packages, the case contends.

What’s more, the major sources of protein in the company’s products—which include kale, sunflower seeds, rice, cashews, buckwheat, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds and chickpeas—are plant-based and therefore provide low-quality protein to humans, the complaint adds.

The filing charges that the defendant’s alleged misrepresentations are intended to capitalize on increasing public demand for healthy products and give the company a “competitive edge” in the market.

The plaintiff, a California resident, bought the company’s Crunchy Kale (Naked) kale chips in May 2022, believing that the “8G PROTEIN” claim on the front label accurately reflected the product’s nutritional value, the suit states. Like other consumers, the plaintiff would not have paid as much for the snack, or purchased the product at all, had he known the kale chips provided “far less protein” than represented, the case claims.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who purchased Brad’s Plant Based Crunchy Kale, Veggie Flats and Veggie Chips products within the relevant statute of limitations period.

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