Better Booch Golden Pear Kombucha Contains No Pear, Class Action Alleges

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A proposed class action claims Better Booch has misled consumers by mispresenting that some of its organic kombucha beverages contain the characterizing ingredients touted on their labels.

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The 34-page lawsuit says that although the front label on Better Booch’s Golden Pear kombucha represents that the drink contains pear, the product, in truth, has none of this characterizing ingredient, and its taste is derived instead solely from “natural pear flavor.”

The suit claims that the company similarly misrepresents other products in its line of organic kombucha drinks, including the Strawberry Lemonade, Morning Glory, Hibiscus Healer, Citrus Sunrise, Guava Cooler and Cherry Retreat varieties.

Per the suit, “natural flavors” such as those in the kombucha at issue are decidedly not natural. In fact, the “natural flavors” listed as ingredients in food products have generally undergone a complex process that results in a mixture of numerous chemicals, some of which are synthetic, the complaint explains.

The use of “natural pear flavor” in the Golden Pear beverage flies in the face of kombucha’s reputation as a healthy fermented tea drink “teeming with living probiotic organisms” and other important nutrients, the filing contests. Nevertheless, Better Booch’s misleading labeling has enabled the company to sell its beverages to “tens of thousands of unsuspecting consumers” in search of healthy products made with natural ingredients, the lawsuit argues.

By law, if a food or drink product’s characterizing flavor is not produced by the named ingredient but is instead created from another source, the item’s packaging must state that it is “artificially flavored,” the suit shares. The case contends that, despite the labeling requirements, “Better Booch chose to deceptively label its beverages, obfuscating the material fact that they did not contain real fruit, but instead derived their flavor from highly processed, lab-synthesized flavoring packets.”

The complaint says the plaintiff, a California resident, has purchased Better Booch’s kombucha, including the Golden Pear variety, numerous times. As the filing tells it, the woman was misled to believe that the drinks contained the fruit listed in their product names, and she would not have paid as much for the kombuchas, or bought them at all, had she known that they did not.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who purchased a Better Booch organic kombucha beverage in any of the varieties listed on this page during the applicable statute of limitations period.

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