- Elaine Wong

Kellogg is discontinuing the packaging of its Cocoa Krispies cereals that claim to boost children’s immunity, the company announced today (Wednesday). The move comes after food industry critics brought the issue to the attention of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this month.

Critics told the FDA that Kellogg seemed to be capitalizing on the H1N1 epidemic, given Cocoa Krispies' claim that it “now helps support your child’s immunity.” Kellogg, however, said the new packaging wasn’t developed in response to the H1N1 flu, but to promote the increase of antioxidant levels in its cereals. (The company upped Krispies' vitamins A, C and E from 10 to 25 percent of the daily value.) The cereal boxes in question first hit shelves in May 2009.
 
Now, Kellogg, which also makes Special K and Frosted Flakes, is reverting the claim. “While science shows that these antioxidants help support the immune system, given the public attention on H1N1, the company decided to make this change,” Kellogg said in today's statement.

Packages of Cocoa Krispies currently in stores will still tout the “immunity” booster, but Kellogg is slowly phasing it out. It’s keeping the new levels of antioxidants in the cereals intact, however.

Call it a case of bad timing, but Marion Nestle, a food and nutrition professor at New York University, said Kellogg pretty much had to stop marketing its claim whether or not it intended it to coincide with the H1N1 outbreak. “They had to. [It's] too embarrassing and [it faced] too much risk of setting off the FDA,” Nestle said.

Kellogg said it will continue responding to the "desire for improved nutrition" and "communicating the importance of nutrition" to consumers.

The company spent $8 million marketing Cocoa Krispies in 2008, and $1 million through August of this year, excluding online, per the Nielsen Co.