The FDA sent a letter to General Mills informing them that the claim that Cheerios can “lower your cholesterol 4 percent in six weeks” makes it a drug under federal law. The letter informs General Mills that Cheerios is “misbranded” because it “bears unauthorized health claims in its labeling.”

Cheerios isn’t the only breakfast food being investigated by the federal government.  The FTC recently released a statement that Kellogg Company settled  in a dispute over whether Frosted Mini-Wheats really was “clinically shown to improve kids’ attentiveness by nearly 20%.”

You can read the letter on the FDA’s website here.

Read the FTC’s press release here.

The Cheerios website has been updated to say that the science is not in question. 

Source: ABA Journal