Kettle Chips “Natural” Lawsuit Settlement: What the Label Meant, What Shoppers Got, and What “Natural” Means on Food

What was the Kettle chips “natural” lawsuit about? In 2014, shoppers sued Diamond Foods, then the maker of Kettle Brand chips, claiming bags labeled “all natural” contained synthetic or artificial ingredients. The company denied wrongdoing but settled in 2015, paying $1 per product (up to $20 with receipts) and agreeing to make suppliers verify ingredients against its “Natural Promise” criteria.

The Kettle case was one of dozens of “natural” lawsuits filed against snack and grocery brands in the early 2010s. Popchips, Trader Joe’s, Nestlé, and many others faced similar claims. These cases all turned on the same problem: the word “natural” sells food, yet the U.S. government has never written a binding definition of it. This article walks through what the Kettle settlement required, what “natural” legally means, why the word is so persuasive, and what actually matters when you pick a bag of chips.

What Did the Kettle Brand Lawsuit Claim?

The plaintiffs argued that “all natural” promises on Kettle Brand potato chips and TIAS tortilla chips were misleading because some flavors contained ingredients they described as synthetic or artificial. According to Truth in Advertising, the complaint was filed in January 2014 against Diamond Foods, and the case named five TIAS tortilla chip flavors, including Nacho Cheddar, Zesty Ranch, and Chili Con Queso. Flavored snack seasonings often rely on processed ingredients such as maltodextrin, yeast extracts, citric acid, and flavor blends, some of which may be manufactured through chemical or industrial processes even when they start from plant material. Whether a jury would view those ingredients as “unnatural” was never tested, because the case settled.

What Did the Settlement Give Consumers?

Under the settlement, which received final approval in July 2015, class members could claim $1 for each eligible Kettle Brand product they bought. People without receipts could claim up to $10, and people with proof of purchase could claim up to $20. The class covered U.S. purchases from January 3, 2010, through February 24, 2015, of products labeled with “natural” wording or related claims such as “non-GMO,” “nothing artificial,” “no preservatives,” or “reduced fat.” Beyond cash, the company agreed to give its “Natural Promise” ingredient criteria to suppliers and require them to verify that their ingredients complied. The settlement also resolved two related lawsuits. Diamond Foods denied any wrongdoing, which is standard in such agreements.

The claim period closed in 2015, so no money remains available from this case today. Kettle Brand later changed hands as part of food industry consolidation, and current packaging should be judged on its own ingredient list rather than on what the bags said a decade ago.

What Does “Natural” Legally Mean on Food?

Very little. The FDA has never issued a regulation defining “natural” for packaged foods. Instead, the agency follows a longstanding policy that a food labeled natural should contain nothing artificial or synthetic, including any color additive regardless of its source, that would not normally be expected in that food. The policy was never meant to address how a food is grown or processed. It does not cover pesticide use, genetic engineering, pasteurization, irradiation, or whether the food is healthy. In 2015 the FDA asked the public whether it should define the term, prohibit it, or leave it alone, after citizen petitions and several federal judges asked the agency to weigh in. The comment period closed in 2016, and no formal rule has followed.

Meat and poultry follow a different system. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service allows “natural” on meat only when the product has no artificial ingredients or added color and is minimally processed, and the label must explain what the term means. Even this stricter rule says nothing about how the animal was raised, so “natural” chicken can come from birds given antibiotics or raised indoors.

Why Were So Many “Natural” Lawsuits Filed?

With no binding definition, the meaning of “natural” became something lawyers argued over product by product. Between roughly 2011 and 2016, consumer class actions targeted cereals, juices, cooking oils, snacks, and frozen desserts. An advertising law firm tracking the trend reported that Popchips settled claims that its “natural” snacks contained synthetic ingredients by agreeing to say “naturally delicious” instead, and that Trader Joe’s set up a $3.375 million fund and dropped “All Natural” from several products. Many companies chose to settle and change wording rather than fight, which kept the definition unsettled. Some courts paused cases to wait for FDA guidance that never arrived.

Why Does the Word “Natural” Persuade Shoppers?

The appeal runs deeper than health. A 2004 study in Appetite by Paul Rozin and colleagues found that preference for natural is strong among American adults and stronger for foods than for medicines. Even when told that a natural and an artificial version were equally healthy, most people who preferred natural kept preferring it, and a majority held that preference even when the two were described as chemically identical. The authors concluded much of the motivation is moral or aesthetic rather than practical. A follow-up 2005 study in Psychological Science found that people judge naturalness mainly by a food’s processing history rather than its contents, that chemical changes reduce perceived naturalness much more than physical ones, and that genetic engineering produced the largest drop of any change tested.

Packaging cues work in similar ways. A 2013 study in Health Communication by Jonathon Schuldt found people rated a candy bar as healthier when its calorie label was green rather than red, even though the calorie count was the same, and the effect was stronger among people who cared most about healthy eating. Words like “natural” and earthy colors create a health halo that can make a snack seem more wholesome than its nutrition panel supports.

Is a “Natural” Chip Healthier Than a Regular One?

Not in any way that matters much. A potato chip labeled natural is still potatoes sliced thin, fried in oil, and salted. A typical one-ounce serving of kettle-style chips supplies roughly 140 to 160 calories, 7 to 10 grams of fat, and 100 to 200 milligrams of sodium, and most people eat more than one serving from a bag. Whether the seasoning uses yeast extract or a synthetic flavor changes little about those numbers. The more useful question is how often chips appear in your diet and what they displace.

Under the NOVA classification described by Carlos Monteiro and colleagues in a 2019 paper in Public Health Nutrition, plain chips made from potatoes, oil, and salt are often grouped as processed foods, while heavily flavored versions with added flavorings, maltodextrin, and similar ingredients usually count as ultra-processed. The “natural” label does not move a product from one group to the other.

Why Does Ultra-Processing Matter More Than the Label?

The strongest evidence on processed snacks concerns how much people eat, not which seasonings they contain. A 2019 inpatient trial in Cell Metabolism led by Kevin Hall at the National Institutes of Health gave 20 adults an ultra-processed diet and an unprocessed diet for two weeks each, matched for calories, sugar, fat, fiber, and other nutrients on offer. On the ultra-processed diet, participants ate about 508 more calories a day and gained about 0.9 kilograms; on the unprocessed diet they lost about the same amount. A 2024 umbrella review in The BMJ by Melissa Lane and colleagues, covering about 9.9 million people, found convincing evidence linking higher ultra-processed food intake with greater risk of cardiovascular death, type 2 diabetes, anxiety, and common mental disorders.

Do Kettle-Cooked Chips Contain More Acrylamide?

They can. Acrylamide forms when starchy foods such as potatoes are fried, baked, or roasted at high temperatures. A 2002 study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry by Eden Tareke and colleagues in Sweden first showed that heated carbohydrate-rich foods contain substantial acrylamide, a chemical that causes cancer in laboratory animals. Some product testing has found kettle-style chips toward the higher end of the range, and darker, browner chips generally contain more. Whether typical dietary amounts raise cancer risk in people is not settled, but limiting very browned fried and baked starches is a reasonable precaution. A “natural” label tells you nothing about acrylamide.

How Do Common Snack Label Claims Compare?

Claim	Who sets the rules	What it tells you
“Natural” / “All natural”	FDA informal policy only	No added artificial ingredients or color expected; nothing about farming, processing, or nutrition
USDA Organic	USDA regulation with certification	No synthetic pesticides, GMOs, or most synthetic additives; audited
Non-GMO Project Verified	Private third-party standard	Tested and verified avoidance of GMO ingredients
“Reduced fat”	FDA regulation	At least 25% less fat than a reference product; may still be high in fat
“No preservatives”	General truth-in-labeling law	No added preservatives; says nothing about salt, fat, or calories

Why Do Companies Keep Using “Natural” if It Invites Lawsuits?

Because it sells. Market research has repeatedly found that many shoppers look for natural claims and are willing to pay more for them, which makes the word worth the legal risk for many brands. After the wave of class actions, some companies switched to narrower phrases that are easier to defend, such as “no artificial flavors,” “made with natural ingredients,” or “naturally flavored.” These are more specific, which helps shoppers, but they still describe only part of a product. A bag can truthfully say “no artificial flavors” while containing a lot of salt and refined oil.

How Can I Choose a Better Bag of Chips?

Turn the bag over. Shorter ingredient lists built from recognizable foods (potatoes, oil, salt) usually mean less processing than long lists of flavorings and additives. Compare sodium per serving, and remember the serving size is often a small handful. Plain or lightly salted chips avoid most flavor additives. Lighter-colored chips tend to carry less acrylamide than very dark ones. Baked, popped, or air-fried versions may be lower in fat, though not always lower in calories or salt, and the Kettle Brand “air fried” line itself drew a separate lawsuit over how the chips were cooked. Portioning chips into a bowl instead of eating from the bag is one of the simplest ways to eat less of them.

What Questions Should I Ask About Any “Natural” Claim?

Ask what the word is replacing. Does “natural” mean no artificial colors, no synthetic flavors, or something the company defines on its website? Is there a third-party seal, such as USDA Organic, that is actually audited? What does the ingredient list show? How does the Nutrition Facts panel compare with similar products without the claim? Asking these questions takes a few seconds and moves your decision from marketing language to information the law requires companies to print accurately.

Can I Still Get Money From the Kettle Settlement?

No. The claim deadline passed in mid-2015, and the settlement funds have been distributed. Food labeling class actions continue to be filed and settled, however. Legitimate settlements are run by court-appointed administrators, list the case name and court, and never ask for payment to file a claim. Sites that charge fees or request bank details up front are a warning sign.

Which Snack Food Is Most Linked to Weight Gain?

Potato chips top the list in one of the largest studies on the question. A 2011 analysis in The New England Journal of Medicine by Dariush Mozaffarian and colleagues followed 120,877 U.S. women and men in three long-running cohorts and tracked weight change in four-year periods. Each added daily serving of potato chips was linked to 1.69 pounds of extra weight gain over four years, more than any other food studied, ahead of potatoes, sugar-sweetened drinks, and red and processed meats. Vegetables, whole grains, fruit, nuts, and yogurt were linked to less weight gain. These are observational findings, but they fit with the inpatient trial evidence on ultra-processed food and point to the same lesson: how much and how often matter more than the label.

What Is Actually in a Flavored Chip Seasoning?

Seasoning blends are where most of a flavored chip’s ingredient list comes from. Common components include salt, sugar or dextrose, maltodextrin (a processed starch that carries flavor), dried cheese or buttermilk, onion and garlic powder, yeast extract, citric acid, and “natural flavors.” Under FDA rules, a natural flavor must come from a plant or animal source such as a spice, fruit, vegetable, meat, or dairy product, and its main purpose must be flavoring rather than nutrition. The extraction can still involve solvents and industrial processing, which is part of why plaintiffs in natural cases argued that some ingredients did not match what shoppers picture. Yeast extract and some cheese powders naturally contain glutamate, the same compound that gives MSG its savory taste.

What About “Non-GMO” Claims on Chips?

The Kettle settlement covered non-GMO wording as well as natural claims. For potato chips, the non-GMO question is mostly about the oil and seasonings, since nearly all potatoes sold in the U.S. are conventionally bred. Genetically engineered potatoes do exist, such as the low-acrylamide variety described in our article on Innate GMO potatoes, but they make up a small share of the market. Corn and soy-based ingredients are more likely to come from engineered crops. Independent testing has shown that company “no GMO” wording is not always accurate, as covered in our report on tortilla chips that failed GMO testing, which is why third-party verification carries more weight than a brand’s own claim.

Why Is Labeling Law So Hard to Fix?

Defining “natural” forces regulators to answer questions with no clean scientific line. Is a vitamin made by fermentation natural? What about sugar refined from beets, or oil pressed with a chemical solvent? Any definition will either allow processes many shoppers dislike or ban ingredients that are plainly from nature. Industry groups, consumer advocates, and farm groups also want different outcomes. The FDA has instead spent its labeling energy on rules with clearer health stakes, such as updated Nutrition Facts panels, added-sugar disclosure, and a revised definition of “healthy.” Our guide to reading food labels covers which of those claims carry real standards.

Who Polices Food Advertising if the FDA Does Not Define “Natural”?

Several overlapping systems. The FDA oversees what appears on most food labels, while the Federal Trade Commission covers advertising such as websites, commercials, and social media posts, and can act against claims it finds deceptive. In practice, most “natural” disputes have been fought through private class actions under state consumer protection laws, especially in California, New York, and Florida, where shoppers can sue if a reasonable consumer would be misled. That is how the Kettle case reached a settlement without any regulator ruling on the word. Industry self-regulation through the advertising industry’s National Advertising Division also reviews some claims brought by competitors. The result is a system where the meaning of “natural” is shaped case by case, by settlements and court rulings rather than by a single clear rule that shoppers can look up.

Common Myths

“Natural means organic.” Organic is a regulated, audited standard; natural is not.

“Natural means healthy.” Natural chips have the same calories, fat, and salt as other chips of the same style.

“The FDA approves natural claims.” The FDA does not pre-approve the term, and it has no binding definition.

“Settling means the company admitted guilt.” Settlements usually include a denial of wrongdoing.

“Synthetic always means harmful.” Many synthetic ingredients are safe; many natural substances are not.

Key Terms

Class action: A lawsuit brought on behalf of a large group with similar claims.

Health halo: The tendency to view a food as healthier because of a label, color, or claim.

Ultra-processed food: Industrial products made largely from refined ingredients and additives, as defined by the NOVA system.

Acrylamide: A chemical formed when starchy foods are cooked at high temperatures.

Maltodextrin: A processed starch used in many seasonings as a carrier and thickener.

The Bottom Line

The Kettle Brand lawsuit ended in 2015 with a settlement paying up to $20 per household and requiring suppliers to verify ingredients against the company’s natural criteria, without any admission of wrongdoing. The case is a reminder that “natural” has no binding legal definition in the United States and says nothing about how healthy a food is. Research shows the word persuades shoppers for reasons that go beyond nutrition. For snacks like chips, the ingredient list, sodium, portion size, and how often you eat them matter far more than any front-of-bag claim.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the Kettle chips class action settlement?

The Kettle chips settlement resolved a 2014 class action claiming Diamond Foods labeled Kettle Brand potato chips and TIAS tortilla chips “all natural” even though some flavors contained synthetic or artificial ingredients. Approved in July 2015, it paid $1 per product, up to $10 without receipts or $20 with them, and required suppliers to verify ingredients. The company denied wrongdoing.

Can I still file a claim for the Kettle chips settlement?

No. The Kettle Brand settlement covered purchases made between January 3, 2010, and February 24, 2015, and the deadline to file a claim passed in mid-2015. Funds have already been distributed. Newer food labeling settlements appear regularly, and legitimate ones are run by court-appointed administrators that never charge a fee to file a claim.

Does “natural” on a food label mean anything?

Only a little. The FDA has no binding regulation defining “natural” for packaged foods. Its informal policy says the term should mean nothing artificial or synthetic, including any added color, was added that would not normally be expected. The policy says nothing about pesticides, genetic engineering, processing methods, or nutrition, so “natural” is mostly a marketing term.

Are natural potato chips healthier?

Not meaningfully. A potato chip labeled natural is still fried and salted, with roughly 140 to 160 calories and 7 to 10 grams of fat per one-ounce serving. Research links potato chips to more long-term weight gain than any other single food studied. Portion size, sodium, and how often you eat chips matter far more than a natural label.

Why do people trust “natural” labels so much?

Studies by psychologist Paul Rozin found that most people prefer natural foods even when told the natural and artificial versions are equally healthy or chemically identical, suggesting the preference is partly moral or aesthetic. Packaging cues such as green colors also make foods seem healthier. This health halo is why the word “natural” is so valuable to food marketers.

Is natural flavor better than artificial flavor?

Not necessarily. Natural flavors must come from plant or animal sources, while artificial flavors are made synthetically, but the two can be chemically similar or even identical, and both go through industrial processing. Neither is inherently healthier. Their presence mostly signals that a food is processed, and the overall ingredient list and nutrition panel are better guides to quality.

References

1. Rozin P, Spranca M, Krieger Z, et al. Preference for natural: instrumental and ideational/moral motivations, and the contrast between foods and medicines. Appetite. 2004;43(2):147–154. PMID 15458801
2. Rozin P. The meaning of “natural”: process more important than content. Psychological Science. 2005;16(8):652–658. PMID 16102069
3. Schuldt JP. Does green mean healthy? Nutrition label color affects perceptions of healthfulness. Health Communication. 2013;28(8):814–821. PMID 23444895
4. Monteiro CA, Cannon G, Levy RB, et al. Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them. Public Health Nutrition. 2019;22(5):936–941. PMID 30744710
5. Hall KD, Ayuketah A, Brychta R, et al. Ultra-processed diets cause excess calorie intake and weight gain: an inpatient randomized controlled trial of ad libitum food intake. Cell Metabolism. 2019;30(1):67–77.e3. PMID 31105044
6. Lane MM, Gamage E, Du S, et al. Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses. BMJ. 2024;384:e077310. PMID 38418082
7. Mozaffarian D, Hao T, Rimm EB, et al. Changes in diet and lifestyle and long-term weight gain in women and men. New England Journal of Medicine. 2011;364(25):2392–2404. PMID 21696306
8. Tareke E, Rydberg P, Karlsson P, et al. Analysis of acrylamide, a carcinogen formed in heated foodstuffs. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2002;50(17):4998–5006. PMID 12166997
9. Truth in Advertising. Kettle Brand Chips and Kettle Brand TIAS Tortilla Chips. truthinadvertising.org
10. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Use of the Term Natural on Food Labeling. fda.gov
11. Kelley Drye & Warren. The Hits Keep on Coming: New “Natural” Settlements and Filings. kelleydrye.com

Last updated: October 10, 2026