Aug 23 (Reuters) - General Mills Inc ( GIS ) agreed to

stop calling the oats in its Nature Valley granola bars 100

percent natural to settle a lawsuit by three consumer groups

that said the bars contained small amounts of the herbicide

commonly known as Roundup.

Beyond Pesticides, Moms Across America and the Organic

Consumers Association on Thursday said the settlement calls for

General Mills ( GIS ) to remove the phrase "Made with 100% Natural Whole

Grain Oats" from Nature Valley labels.

The groups said independent tests showed that the granola

bars contained 0.45 parts per million of glyphosate, and that

oats were the "most likely" source of the herbicide.

While this was below the maximum 30 parts per million that

the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends, the groups

said General Mills' ( GIS ) label was deceptive and that "no reasonable

consumer" would expect the bars to contain anything unnatural.

"Nature Valley is confident in the accuracy of its label,"

General Mills ( GIS ) spokesman Mike Siemienas said in an email.

He said the Minneapolis-based company settled to avoid the

cost and distraction of litigation, and focus on making Nature

Valley products "with 100 percent whole grain oats."

The settlement came 13 days after a San Francisco jury

ordered Monsanto Co to pay a school groundskeeper $289 million

after he said his exposure to its Roundup weed killer and

another glyphosate herbicide caused his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Bayer AG, which now owns Monsanto, has said it

would appeal the jury's verdict.

The General Mills ( GIS ) lawsuit was one of many accusing food

companies of using deceptive labels, including terms such as

"natural" that do not have clearly understood meanings, to

induce consumers to buy or pay more for their products.

In July 2017, a Minneapolis federal judge dismissed a

proposed class action lawsuit over General Mills' ( GIS ) "100% Natural"

label, saying that even if the oats contained traces of

glyphosate, "there is no allegation that the oats, themselves,

are not natural."

A subsequent appeal was dismissed.

The consumer groups had sued General Mills ( GIS ) two years ago in

Superior Court in Washington, D.C.

The Organic Consumers Association sued Unilever Plc ( UL )

in the same court on July 9 over its labeling for Ben &

Jerry's ( UL ) ice cream, including a claim over the use of glyphosate.