We all know that milk does a body good — or at least that’s what they say in the commercials — but a new lawsuit claims that one of the nation’s largest producers of organic dairy products is greatly overstating the brain health benefits of some of its milk offerings.

In a class-action complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, plaintiffs allege that Dean Foods, parent company of Horizon Organics, is misleading consumers by slapping a huge banner that reads “Supports Brain Health” on the cartons of Horizon’s Milk plus DHA Omega-3 line.

From the Chicago Tribune:

DHA is a long-chain omega-3 fatty acid typically found in cold water fish, according to the suit, but the DHA in Horizon milk products is not derived from fish oil.

Instead, the suit claims, the DHA oil used in the milk is a short-chain omega-3 fatty acid made from mutated and fermented algae.

“Clinical cause and effect studies have found no causative link between DHA algal oil supplementation and brain health,” reads the complaint. The lawsuit claims that the statements made in the milk cartons are “false, misleading, and reasonably likely to deceive the public.”

Dean Foods sued for Horizon milk’s health claims [Chicago Tribune]

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