A New York consumer is suing Post over allegedly misleading claims for one of its breakfast cereals. (See complaint.)
The cereal in question, 19.5-ounce “family size” boxes of Post Fruity Pebbles, is supposed to have enough cereal for 15 one-cup bowls of cereal.
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The consumer’s lawyers contend, however, that it has far less.
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They hired an independent testing lab which determined that the cereal is denser than the label indicates, so you actually only get 11.3 one-cup serving per box, and thus the claimed amount of calories, sugar, and sodium is far higher per serving than represented.
So, the company is being sued for false and misleading statements and unjust enrichment under New York law. They are asking the judge for refunds and corrective advertising.
This petition was filed in November 2025. It is now 9 months later. Did the Post respond to the petition? Any development?
In May, there was a notice of voluntary dismissal, but no specifics were provided.
Noticed same with frozen vegetables.
oh come on here. This has to be done with more than just this one single cereal though.
General Mills and Kellogg’s must be doing this as well.
I’m no expert on any of this, but here is my 2 cents worth. It seems to be an error in an apples (weight) to oranges (volume) comparison. If I did the math correctly, the package weight will yield 15.33 servings that weigh 36 grams each. I think these are hollow puffed balls and perhaps the size has been reduced for some reason so 36 grams now fills less than 1 cup. So in my mind the question is, how is the nutrition information calculated, is it on weight or volume? I would guess weight which would make the label only having an error by stating a serving is 1 cup, easily rectified by adding “about” before 1 cup or just eliminate the volume designation. (I don’t know labeling laws if both are required) This seems like something that could have been resolved without a lawsuit and I certainly hope no damages are awarded when this is settled because in the end it is the consumer who pays. Oh, and I’m sure somewhere on the label is the disclaimer “…sold by weight not volume…”
I’ve always wondered just how accurate these nutrition labels are. Does the FDA test these labels to make sure they are accurate?
The thing with the number of servings on Post Cereal is that they say “About” 15 servings. I’m sure their argue that point.
I feel like “about” shouldn’t be an almost 30% deficit from what’s advertised.. from saying about 15 cups, to actually being 11.3 cups… That’s literally almost a third less. This is why we do need consumer rights, like being told the truth.
I imagine Post is going to counter with weight being the appropriate measure for a food with lots of air gaps like cereal. Were there 15 36g servings? Post is going to say that a “cup” of cereal is simply an eyeball estimate and that, like chips, popcorn, and bagged vegetables, you need to weigh if you want to be exact.
I don’t see a problem with this. Being a puffed rice product, there’s no way they can guarantee volume, hence the “about”, even if it is far less.
So long as there are 15 servings at 36g each, that’s all that really matters.
I’m not really sure why they even bothered with combating the volume estimate in the first place. Even ultra fine particle sized products like flour, it’s still recommended to measure by weight for recipes simply due to volume being a poor accuracy measure.
Now, if the box was short in ounces, then they’d have something.