Wrigley will pay consumers up to $7m after settling a class action that challenged its right to claim its Eclipse gum was, "scientifically proven to help kill the germs that cause bad breath". Wrigley agreed to set up a fund of $6m (with another $1m added if needed) with consumers able to claim $10 each if they could qualify purchases of the magnolia bark extract-fortified gum. Wrigley also agreed to amend the claims and pay all costs associated with settling the action that was brought by the same two legal firms – Blood Hurst & O'Reardon and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd – that won a similar class action against Dannon over probiotic yogurt claims last year. But the company was unavailable for further comment today about how it might amend those claims.

Timothy Blood, from Blood Hurst & O'Reardon, said his firm was engaged in actions against what he called a proliferation of “junk science” backing claims. Class actions against General Mills probiotic yogurt Yoplait YoPlus were pending.

Wrigley conducted a trial published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in 2007 that showed magnolia bark extract removed about 20 times more of the germs that cause bad breath within half an hour than placebo mints.

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Source: confectionerynews.com