Lotus Bakeries takes Holie’s to court over Sugar-Score

Belgian Lotus Bakeries has sued Dutch breakfast cereal manufacturer Holie’s over its campaign on the sugar content of some popular brands.

Battle against “hidden” sugars

A few weeks ago, Amsterdam-based cereal brand Holie’s launched the Sugar-Score, an online tool that provides insight into how much sugar is really in popular breakfast and snack products. The company claims that many products appear healthier than they actually are due to clever marketing tricks, but that they are still packed with what it calls “hidden” sugars.

The company has created a website where it grades the best-selling breakfast products and bars in the Netherlands and Belgium on the sugar content: products with 0 to 5 % sugar are labelled A, those with 5 to 10 % sugar get a B, while those with more than 10 % sugar are given a big, red C.

Lotus Bakeries, producer of Nākd fruit and nut bars and Trek oatmeal bars, did not appreciate that its bars were given a sugar score C and accuses Holie’s of deception. The Belgian Biscoff manufacturer even took the matter to court, which is hearing the case in summary proceedings on Wednesday afternoon.

“In violation of the law”

“Holie’s has launched a self-conceived ‘Sugarscore’ and set up a website and marketing campaign for it,” a Lotus Bakeries spokesperson told Het Parool. “Without sound substantiation, they label their own products as good and healthy and spread false, misleading information about competitors in a way that violates the law.” The company stresses that no sugar is “added” to the Nākd bars.

Holie’s co-founder Valentijn van Santvoort rejects the allegations: “We have taken the actual info from the packaging, without all the noise and marketing claims around it, and are allowed to compare them.”