Breakfast cereal video ad distorts calorie claim

Details

Created on 06, September, 2020

A major food manufacturer claims in a marketing video that a serving of one of its breakfast cereals is "low-calorie"...

The video states that one serving of the cereal (150 calories) with a cup of skim milk is low in calories. The cereal by itself is not low in calories, because it has (way) more than 40 calories per serving. Adding milk "potentially" turns the combo into a "main dish," which can have more calories and still qualify as "low-calorie"... but that is only because milk is mostly water weight, allowing the combo/dish to get above 6 oz total and thus be classified as a "main dish." However, that only applies to a packaged main dish "as labeled," whereas here we have milk (water weight) being added to another product (the cereal) to dilute its calories. The cereal and milk would need to be sold/packaged together as a "main dish" to use the "low-calorie" claim, otherwise it is misleading as to the amount of calories in the cereal itself.