A new class action claims Duncan Hines mislabeled its keto baking mixes as having 0 grams of added sugar.

On Oct. 14, 2026, Lauren Carroll-Gross filed a class action lawsuit against Conagra Brands Inc., the company that owns Duncan Hines, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

The lawsuit claims Conagra markets its Duncan Hines Keto Friendly baking mixes and dessert cups as having 0 grams of added sugar yet they contain allulose, a sugar under federal labeling rules.

The allegations

The complaint names eight Duncan Hines Keto Friendly cookie, cake, brownie and muffin mixes and single-serve dessert cups plus any other Duncan Hines product that contains allulose and claims to contain 0 grams of added sugar. Allulose is a monosaccharide, a single-molecule carbohydrate that occurs naturally in small amounts in figs and raisins, according to the lawsuit.

The proposed class action alleges the allulose in the Duncan Hines products is a principal ingredient, not a trace one, citing Conagra’s own net carb footnotes: 3 grams per serving in the cookie mix and as much as 21 grams in the double chocolate cake cup. The Duncan Hines website reportedly calls allulose “a low-calorie sugar” that the company uses in place of regular sugar.

FDA guidance

Food and Drug Administration rules define sugars to include all free monosaccharides. It allows a no-added-sugar claim(2)) only when a company does not add any amount of sugar during processing or packaging.

The complaint argues that allulose counts as a sugar under the FDA's rules so adding any amount of it nullifies the 0-grams-added-sugar claim. A 2020 FDA guidance document said the agency would not object if companies left allulose out of sugar totals on nutrition labels. However, the lawsuit contends that guidance never changed the definition of allulose itself.

The plaintiff's reported experience

Carroll-Gross, whose says her son has type 1 diabetes, claims she buys products with no added sugar for her household. She alleges she relied on the 0-grams-added-sugar label and would not have bought the products, or would have paid substantially less, had she known Conagra added allulose.

The legal claims

The proposed class action brings three claims:


  • State consumer protection laws in 33 states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, which bar deceptive marketing

  • Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, which bans deceptive practices in Illinois trade

  • Unjust enrichment, which applies when a company profits unfairly at someone else's expense

The 33-state claim covers buyers in those states and the Illinois claim covers buyers in Illinois, while the unjust enrichment claim covers buyers nationwide. The class action seeks damages, restitution, Conagra's profits from the products and an order barring the 0-grams-added-sugar claim.

As of this writing, there is no settlement, no claims process and no money available.