Claudia Lewis spoke with Bloomberg about the rise in consumer deception lawsuits involving foods marketed as “zero sugar” that contain allulose. The following is an excerpt:
Makers of ice cream bars, energy drinks, gummy worms, barbecue sauces, protein bars, and more are all targets of an onslaught of consumer deception litigation because they contain a single ingredient: a sugar substitute called allulose.
The burgeoning litigation highlights the tension in food labeling policy that mandates scientific accuracy and also aims to describe the nutritional impact in human bodies concisely.
Allulose, the ingredient at the heart of these lawsuits, is molecularly a simple sugar that occurs naturally in figs and molasses and is extremely sweet for minimal calories. It has a small metabolic impact on the human body, with almost no impact on blood glucose, and therefore isn’t associated with many negative health effects of more traditional sugars.
Nearly 60 lawsuits have been filed against food producers who advertised certain allulose-containing products as “zero sugar” since a July Seventh Circuit ruling reinstated consumer deception claims against Chobani LLC.
“Where the FDA hasn’t taken enforcement action, the industry has created some flexibility in terms of how the rules are interpreted,” said Claudia Lewis, a partner at Venable.
The global sugar-free food market was valued at more than $45 billion in 2024, and is expected to grow more than 6.2% over the next decade, according to research from food and beverage consulting firm Towards FnB.
It would be in the industry’s best interest to push the FDA to pursue rulemaking to clarify how allulose can be labeled, Lewis said.
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