This Popular Grocery Chain Has To Pay Over $1M For Its Misleading Labels

Kroger, the oldest grocery store chain in America, is being held accountable for deceiving shoppers with incorrect information on the packaging of certain food items. Kroger has to pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit from the district attorneys of California's Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Riverside counties for advertising remarkably low and inaccurate calorie counts on several of its Carbmaster bread products. The items include white bread, wheat bread, multiseed bread, hotdog buns and hamburger buns. 

The white and wheat bread were advertised as having 30 calories when they actually contained 50 calories, and the Carbmaster hamburger buns were advertised as 50 calories when they really contained 100. The incorrect calorie counts were featured on both the FDA Nutrition Panel and the customer-facing part of the packaging. According to the Santa Barbara County's District Attorney's office, the lawsuit accused Kroger of violating California's False Advertising and Unfair Competition laws.

The Carbmaster bread items were sold in several Kroger-owned chains in California, including Ralph's, Foods Co., and Food 4 Less. Riverside California District Attorney Michael A. Hestrin stressed the importance of transparency and trust between company and consumer in a statement (via Patch). "Consumers rely on calorie information to make informed decisions about the food they purchase and consume," he wrote. Not only were inaccurate calorie values advertised to customers in the first place, but they continued to be featured, even after the error was discovered.

There are plenty of Kroger secrets every shopper needs to know without adding inaccurate calorie counts on labels to the list. When Kroger started selling the Carbmaster bread items in 2021, the calories were incorrect on both the FDA Nutrition Panel and on consumer-facing parts of the label. This discrepancy was pointed out and corrected on the Nutrition Panel, but went unchanged for six months on the customer-facing portion of the packaging. One item even went nearly two years with the incorrect calorie number advertised to customers, even after attorneys launched the investigation.

Calorie miscalculation isn't unusual, and the Food and Drug Administration allows caloric numbers on a product's label to deviate from the actual amount by up to 20%. However, as more consumers make an effort to be conscious of the nutritional value in their foods, the accuracy of the number printed on the package can make or break consumer trust; this is especially true since the FDA's 2016 rule, which requires that calorie counts need to be printed in large, bold font on the Nutrition Information Panel. Kroger may be one of the latest popular grocery chains that promised to slash prices, but if customers feel they're being tricked via false advertising, lower prices may not be enough incentive for them to remain loyal to the supermarket chain.