[8] The Vermont Supreme Court held that the nutraloaf and water diet constitutes punishment as it was designed to be unappetizing and required a hearing prior to it being served to prisoners.
[9] Other state courts in Illinois, New York, and West Virginia have upheld nutraloaf against 8th Amendment challenges over claims that it constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
[7] A similar food item was mentioned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978 in Hutto v. Finney while ruling that conditions in the Arkansas penal system constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
Among other complaints, prisoners reported being fed "grue", described as "a substance created by mashing meat, potatoes, oleo [margarine], syrup, vegetables, eggs, and seasoning into a paste and baking the mixture in a pan".
[13][14] Denying inmates food as punishment has been found to be unconstitutional by the courts,[15] but because the loaf is generally nutritionally complete, it is sometimes justified as a "dietary adjustment" rather than a denial of proper meals.