Class-action lawsuits over nutritional claims on the rise in MAHA era
Food and beverage class-action lawsuits over nutrition label claims jumped 58% between 2023 and 2024, hitting brands like David Protein Bars and Poppi (settled for $8.9M). Both red and blue state AGs are now actively pursuing UDAP enforcement against health claims.
Marketplace brands selling supplements, protein products, or 'better-for-you' foods on Amazon/Walmart/Target face compounding risk: viral social media scrutiny feeds class-action pipelines faster than ever. Audit every bullet point and A+ content health claim against current FDA label requirements before a Reddit thread does it for you.
This is a regulatory shift accelerating across both private litigation and state AG enforcement, creating a new compliance cost layer for CPG and health brands selling on marketplaces -- particularly as MAHA-era scrutiny makes health claims a political and legal target simultaneously.
Pull all active Amazon listings with health claims (protein grams, calorie counts, fiber doses, 'zero sugar') and cross-check against third-party lab COAs -- if claims diverge even slightly, update listings before a competitor or plaintiff attorney flags them.
In the next 30 days, add a quarterly third-party lab testing cycle to your brand SOPs and remove gut health, immunity, or weight-loss adjacent claims that lack substantiation -- Poppi's repositioning post-settlement is the playbook to follow.
Bottom Line
58% lawsuit spike means unsubstantiated health claims are now a brand liability.
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Industry Context
Useful background context, but lower-priority than direct platform, community, or operator intelligence.
Impact Level
medium
58% lawsuit spike means unsubstantiated health claims are now a brand liability.
Key Stat / Trigger
58% increase in class-action filings against food and beverage label claims between 2023 and 2024
Focus on the operational implication, not just the headline.
Full Coverage
Global Retail // March 26, 2026 Class-action lawsuits over nutritional claims on the rise in MAHA era By Gabriela Barkho Ivy Liu In the MAHA age, food and beverage companies are facing more complex consumer criticisms of their health and wellness claims. Some of these consumer counterclaims are increasingly leading to class action lawsuits.
The latest class action of this kind came earlier this year, claiming that protein bar startup David contains more calories and fat than is labeled. The lawsuit cited independent lab tests that found up to 275 calories and 13. 5 grams of fat in a David bar, in contrast to the company’s heavily advertised 150 calories and two grams of fat per serving.
David has defended its labeling by stating the latest tests misinterpreted the nutrient makeup of EPG, the proprietary fat substitute used in its bars, and that EPG simply passes through the body and is not directly digested as energy. The David class action comes on the heels of a somewhat similar suit filed against Poppi in 2024.
The better-for-you soda brand was hit with a class-action lawsuit in California by customers, who claimed its label falsely promoted the prebiotic fiber dose as a gut health benefit. Last year, Poppi settled the class action for $8. 9 million. The company has also since moved away from the gut health positioning on its labels.
There is indeed evidence that class action filings against food and beverage brands’ label claims have increased this decade. These types of suits reportedly hit a 10-year high in 2021 and jumped by more than 58% between 2023 and 2024, per tracking by law firm Perkins Coie.
Why brands’ health claims are facing greater scrutiny Donnelly McDowell is a partner at Kelley Drye who advises companies on FDA and consumer protection risks. McDowell told Modern Retail that health and nutrition claims, along with related marketing campaigns, have been an active source of litigation and enforcement for many years.
“The politicization of these issues recently has increased attention,” he said. That has also changed the way that lawyers and regulators are approaching and talking about these issues. “There is also a whole new set of legislators and regulators that are taking a more active role at the state level,” McDowell said.
He added that, historically, it would have been unlikely for a red state’s Attorney General to view these issues through a broader UDAP (Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices) lens. “But we’re now seeing investigations and enforcement from both red and blue states on top of the longstanding private litigation,” he said.
On the class-action lawsuit side, despite a spike in legal filings, many of these cases end up dismissed or eventually settled. One prominent example came in 2022, when beverage brand Ensure faced a suit alleging that the “healthy” claims on its shakes were misleading due to the high amount of added sugar.
The lawsuit was dismissed by the Second Circuit in 2025, with the court claiming that the defendant’s label clearly disclosed the sugar content in the product. In 2025, Chobani successfully defended its “Zero Sugar” yogurt line’s claims against a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging the product indeed contains sugar.
The class action claimed that Chobani’s claims did not clearly disclose the company’s use of the fruit-derived sweetener allulose as a sugar substitute. In the ruling, an Illinois federal judge said the label met current FDA label requirements.
Social media is shaping the conversation around nutrition claims Thanks to viral conversions on platforms like Reddit, X and TikTok, certain narratives around brand claims can form much more quickly than they could in previous decades. Tara Naughton, senior vp at Storyful Intelligence, said that Americans are more health-conscious than ever.
“And Storyful data and insights show consumers are paying close attention to claims about the brands they consume, and that can create increased virality,” she said. Popular better-for-you brands, like David and Poppi, can often face greater risk.
“That’s because their health-conscious customers can feel misled, particularly if the products are a part of their health routines,” Naughton said. Naughton said brands can monitor the conversations around their claims early to better inform their messaging.
Per Storyful’s tracking, the conversation around David’s macros claims was born all the way back in September 2024, around the time the company launched. These discussions began on niche Reddit threads and on X.
That month saw one of the first instances of people questioning the accuracy of David’s caloric breakdown, with one Reddit user claiming the bars are “collagen spiked” and should be marked as 186 cals instead of 150. By October, multiple communities were independently arriving at the same conclusion, with users literally
Original Source
This briefing is based on reporting from Modern Retail. Use the original post for full primary-source context.
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