Kroger to pay $1.25 million to settle California lawsuit alleging inaccurate calorie listings
Kroger will pay $1.25 million to settle a California lawsuit alleging the company cut the calorie counts on several of its Kroger-branded Carbmaster bread products, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office said in a press release Monday.
The lawsuit specifically accused Kroger of violating California's False Advertising and Unfair Competition laws, claiming the company labeled five varieties of Carbmaster bread with inaccurate calorie information, both on the product packaging and in online listings.
The products were sold at Kroger-owned Ralphs, Food 4 Less and Foods Co. stores throughout California, the district attorney's office said.
According to prosecutors, Kroger initially miscalculated the calorie content of the products when they were introduced in 2021 and displayed incorrect calorie values on both FDA nutrition labels and front-of-package advertising.
Investigators alleged that even after consumers complained and Kroger corrected the information on the nutrition labels, it "continued advertising the substantially lower, incorrect calorie value on the consumer-facing portions of the packaging for at least six months," the district attorney's office said Monday.
For at least one bread variety, prosecutors said the inaccurate calorie information remained online "for nearly two years, even after the company was aware of the District Attorney's investigation."
The lawsuit alleged the calorie discrepancies were significant. Prosecutors said Kroger allegedly advertised its Carbmaster Hamburger Buns as containing 50 calories when they actually contained 100 calories.
The company also allegedly advertised its white and wheat bread varieties as containing 30 calories when the correct value was 50 calories, according to the complaint.
The case was brought by the district attorneys of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Riverside Counties.
In a statement Monday, Santa Barbara County District Attorney John Savrnoch said, "Food labeling laws protect consumers and help them make healthy food choices. Kroger marketed Carbmaster Bread Products to consumers on specialty diets while significantly misrepresenting the nutritional information of those products."
"As one of the largest food manufacturers and retailers in the United States, Kroger had a responsibility to ensure its representations about nutritional information were accurate, and it failed," the statement continued. "California consumers deserve better."
A Kroger spokesperson declined to comment on the settlement when reached by ABC News.
