• USA Today, Monday, November 2, 2009 12:15 PM

Speaking of questionable claims, one critic says that Kellogg's bold lettering on its Cocoa Krispies boxes proclaiming that the cereal "helps support your child's IMMUNITY" is worthy of hall-of-fame status in the misleading category, Bruce Horovitz reports. "By their logic, you can spray vitamins on a pile of leaves, and it will boost immunity," says Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

The city of San Francisco last week asked Kellogg's to prove its claim in a letter to the Food and Drug Administration, which has jurisdiction over false or misleading labeling. "I am concerned the prominent use of the immunity claims to advertise a sugar-laden chocolate cereal like Cocoa Krispies may mislead and deceive parents of young children," says city attorney Dennis Herrera.

Kellogg 's spokeswoman Susanne Norwitz says that studies show that vitamins A, C and E play an important role in the immune system, so the company boosted some cereals from a 10% daily value to a 25% daily value of those vitamins "in response to consumers expressing a need for more positive nutrition."

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