Peter Rahal, the CEO of David Protein has issued a public response following a lawsuit alleging discrepancies in the brand’s calorie labeling.

The lawsuit claims the product may not match its advertised nutritional profile, prompting the company to defend its practices publicly.

According to Rahal in his statement:

“The lawsuit relies on bomb calorimetry, a method that measures total heat released when food is completely burned in a lab. Your body doesn't burn food, it digests it. This method makes certain ingredients appear to contain more calories than the body actually absorbs.

Fiber is a clear example: it releases more heat when burned in a lab than the body can extract from it. The FDA assigns it a lower calorie value for labeling purposes for exactly this reason. The same applies to EPG, a fat substitute in David that contributes only 0.7 kcal/gram, compared to 9 kcal/gram for conventional fats.

The FDA has specific, well-established rules for calculating calories and fat from EPG on nutrition labels. We follow those rules exactly.”

As functional foods scale, accuracy and transparency are becoming major pressure points—especially for brands growing quickly.

This case could signal a broader wave of:

Across the protein and functional snack space.