CONSUMER BRIEFS / NUTRITION

Infant formula company PBM Products is suing a competitor, trying to stop what the company calls a “false and misleading” ad campaign.

PBM filed suit in U.S. District Court in Virginia against Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. and Mead Johnson & Co., makers of the Enfamil LIPIL Infant Formula product.

The suit accuses Mead Johnson of using false implications to undermine confidence in the store-brand formulas that PBM supplies to Wal-Mart, Target and other retailers.

“Mead Johnson stands behind our products, our science, and our marketing,” spokesman Pete Paradossi said.

PBM alleges that Mead Johnson’s national ads tout the Enfamil product as being the only one that contains two specific nutrients, DHA and ARA, that promote brain and eye development in infants.

According to the suit, some of the ads suggest that store-brand products will result in fuzzy vision and slower brain development. But, according to PBM, the store-brand formulas are nutritionally comparable, if not identical, to Enfamil.