--- title: Federal Trade Commission challenges Kellogg for claim that Rice Krispies boost immunity description: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has, for the second time, lashed out against exaggerated marketing claims made by Rice Krispies' manufacturer Kellogg's. Last year the... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7144628/ftc-again-condemns-kelloggs-inflated-health-claims/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2010-06-04T18:08:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T11:40:30.009Z article:section: Health og:title: Federal Trade Commission challenges Kellogg for claim that Rice Krispies boost immunity og:description: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has, for the second time, lashed out against exaggerated marketing claims made by Rice Krispies' manufacturer Kellogg's. Last year the... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7144628/ftc-again-condemns-kelloggs-inflated-health-claims/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Federal Trade Commission challenges Kellogg for claim that Rice Krispies boost immunity twitter:description: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has, for the second time, lashed out against exaggerated marketing claims made by Rice Krispies' manufacturer Kellogg's. Last year the... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Health](/section/health/) # FTC again condemns Kellogg's inflated health claims > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=f58b6e58-cc75-449f-b756-2ae1831f16c4&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jun 4, 2010 6:08 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jun 4, 2010 6:08 PM UTC Images of elite athletes in action The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has, for the second time, lashed out against exaggerated marketing claims made by Rice Krispies’ manufacturer Kellogg’s. Last year the FTC ordered the company [reached a settlement](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30311211/) with the FTC, which criticized its unfounded claims that Frosted Mini Wheats cereal was “clinically shown to improve kids’ attentiveness by nearly 20%.” Yet shortly after coming to an agreement on that previous marketing campaign, Kellogg launched another effort for Rice Krispies, claiming that the cereal could boost children’s immunity, according to a [statement](http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/06/kellogg.shtm) released yesterday by the FTC. more Under the previous settlement, Kellogg was banned from making any claims about their products’ benefits to cognitive health or function unless such claims could be backed up by scientific evidence. In light of the subsequent claims — that Rice Krispies can boost children’s immunity — the original order has been expanded, and now more broadly bars the company from “making claims about any health benefit of any food unless the claims are backed by scientific evidence and not misleading.” Rice Krispies boxes with immunity claims first emerged on the market last May, but they came under intense scrutiny in the fall due as critics wondered whether the marketing efforts weren’t an attempt to capitalize on swine flu fears. In early November 2009 Yale obesity researcher Kelly Brownell dismissed the campaign to [_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2009-11-02-cereal-immunity-claim%5FN.htm) arguing: --- > “” --- In the same _USA Today_ article Marion Nestle, prominent nutrition expert and professor of nutrition at New York University remarked: --- > “” --- In the statement released this week regarding the revised order, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz rebuked Kellogg: --- > “” --- Yet, as Katherine Hobson points out on the Wall Street Journal’s [health blog](http://blogs.wsj.com/health/), Kellogg is hardly the sole offender when it comes to making inflated — and unsubstantiated — claims about food products’ health benefits. Early [last month](http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/05/12/report-health-claims-for-food-drugs-deserve-same-scrutiny/) Hobson pointed to a [report](http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2010/Evaluation-of-Biomarkers-and-Surrogate-Endpoints-in-Chronic-Disease.aspx) from the Institutes of Medicine calling for more uniform scrutiny of health benefit claims — whether they apply to medical devices, pharmaceuticals or Cheerios. [Click to find out about deliberately deceptive food labels](http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1986269%5F1986240%5F1986272,00.html). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7144628/ftc-again-condemns-kelloggs-inflated-health-claims/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7144628/ftc-again-condemns-kelloggs-inflated-health-claims/"},"headline":"FTC again condemns Kellogg's inflated health claims","datePublished":"2010-06-04T18:08:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T11:40:30.009Z","description":"The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has, for the second time, lashed out against exaggerated marketing claims made by Rice Krispies' manufacturer Kellogg's. 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