Case Overview: A class action lawsuit accuses Albertsons Companies of misleading consumers by labeling its Signature Select fruit cups as "100% juice" when they contain synthetic additives.
Consumers Affected: Consumers nationwide who purchased Albertsons Companies Signature Select fruit cups.
Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
In a juicy discovery for consumers, Albertsons Signature Select brand fruit cups have been found to contain synthetic additives rendering claims the fruit is in 100% juice false, a new class action lawsuit claims.
The cups include peaches and mandarin oranges, and they are all marketed as being contained in “100% fruit juice” and “100% juice,” the lawsuit argues. However, the cups contain ascorbic acid and citric acid, two synthetic preservatives that render Albertsons Companies’ front-label claims “false and misleading,” the lawsuit argues.
Christian Lucas filed the proposed class action lawsuit in California accusing Albertsons Companies of breaking state and federal advertising and business laws. He says that in June he bought Signature Select Mandarin Oranges from a Safeway store in Berkeley, largely because the label said the fruit was “in 100% fruit juice.”
He argues that he wouldn’t have bought the products had he known they contain the synthetic ingredients, and added he actually paid a premium because of the Albertson Companies’ “false and misleading claims regarding the product’s purported fruit juice content.”
While citric acid sounds like a natural ingredient, the type of citric acid contained in the fruit cups is derived from heavy chemical processing, the lawsuit says. The synthetic version is commercially produced and is manufactured using a type of black mold called Aspergillus niger, as well as chemical solvents.
Over the years, the Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to companies stating that certain products labeled as “natural” are misbranded because they contain artificial citric acid as an ingredient. In 2001, the FDA sent Hirzel Canning Company a warning letter regarding its canned tomato products, which the agency said could not bear the “All Natural” claim on the label because they contained citric acid.
As per the lawsuit, ascorbic acid is a human-made product that is designed to cost-effectively mimic and replace naturally-occurring vitamin C found in natural food. It’s often derived from GMO corn starch, GMO corn sugar or rice starch. For that reason, ascorbic acid is referred to as “synthetic vitamin C,” the lawsuit states.
As the National Library of Medicine studies show, customers are willing to pay more for healthier options, and when they do pay more and end up finding out they’ve been tricked, they suffer economic injury, as Lucas’ lawsuit states.
The lawsuit cites studies that say Americans “are paying more attention to ingredient lists, choosing clean ingredients and avoiding chemical sounding ingredients” and that “about half of Americans say they seek out natural flavors at least some of the time and artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners and preservatives were sought out by only about one in 10 consumers, with approximately half saying they avoid each of them at least some of the time.”
Knowing this, producers like Albertson Companies aim to capitalize on market preferences, Lucas argues, by labeling its fruit cups as being contained in “100% Juice” or “in 100% Fruit Juice.”
“Unfortunately for consumers, defendant’s marketing and labeling practices are precisely what consumers are seeking to avoid: pure juice representations made clearly and conspicuously on the front of its labels while inconspicuously disclosing (or failing to disclose) contradictory ingredient information on the other side of the packaging.”
Recently, we’ve been following a consumer lawsuit filed against Kroger for very similar reasons, with shoppers arguing Kroger fruit cups contain ascorbic acid and citric acid. We also recently reported on how Target has been hit with claims it falsely advertises its Good and Gather pasta sauces. Consumers argue Target adorns the labels with fresh veggies and statements saying they contain no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, when in fact the sauces do have artificial preservatives.
Aldi has also been accused in a lawsuit of adding a blend of undisclosed ingredients including manufactured chemical compounds to its peaches in “100 percent fruit juice.”
In his proposed class action lawsuit, Lucas wants to represent consumers nationwide in his claims that Albertson Companies violated California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act, Unfair Competition Law, as well as breach of express warranty. He is seeking damages, restitution, interest, and injunctive relief.
Case Details
Plaintiffs' Attorneys
Have you bought Albertsons Signature Select fruit cups or similar products? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
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