JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A meal kit marketed to children by a trio of YouTube stars, including MrBeast, Logan Paul, and KSI, is trending for all the wrong reasons because of mold claims.
Lunchly, launched last September is supposed to be a healthier alternative to Lunchables, but there are questions if you should believe the hype.
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Rosanna Pansino, a YouTube-famous influencer, and cookbook author with nearly 15 million subscribers, posted a video of herself opening a package of a Lunchly, and claiming there was mold.
The Food & Drug Administration tells Action News Jax’s Ben Becker it has not received any complaints, but TMZ is reporting FDA sources say more than ten consumers have reported issues with the product and at least one complaint claimed that someone became ill.
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♬ Thick Of It (feat. Trippie Redd) - KSI
“The fact is USDA inspects every finished food lot and approves it before even leaving (Lunchly’s) facility,” Paul said in a response to the mold claims in a video posted on X. “Yes, it’s possible issues could happen in transit like a seal breaking, or at the store level with rough handling, but like any produce you buy. Problems can arise.”
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Masha Sardari is a registered dietician based in Jacksonville who said quality control is going to be challenging for new companies. She raises concerns over the nutritional value of Lunchly’s that come in three flavors -- Turkey Stack’ems, Pizza, and Nachos. All three contain one MrBeast’s Feastable chocolate bar and a bottle of Prime, meaning additional electrolytes -- which Sardari said can be misleading from a health perspective.
“In a sense, they are rebranding sodium as electrolytes and seems to be health halo around electrolytes nowadays, so we are talking about them as if they are more important than they were in the past,” Sardari said.
The Lunchly website boasts nutritional comparisons of “us vs them” to show how Lunchly stacks up to Lunchables, but key nutrients are missing from these charts, including sodium and saturated fat, which are similar in both products.
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MrBeast and Paul combine for 350 million YouTube subscribers. According to Forbes, MrBeast earned $54 million through the platform last year and Paul made about $21 million.
“I think marketing is a very strong influencer,” Sardari said in a warning to parents. “Social media is something very much here and now and that’s what kids are paying attention to especially their target audience, which is growing boys.”
Lunchly products were only available locally from Kroger delivery recently, but in January, Target started selling it nationwide.
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