Campbell’s Lawsuit Says Chunky Beef with Country Vegetables Soup Contains Less Beef Than Advertised

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A proposed class action alleges Campbell’s Chunky Beef with Country Vegetables soup is falsely advertised given that the product is made predominately with vegetables.

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The 17-page lawsuit says that by including the word “beef” before “vegetables,” and in a font twice as large, on the product’s front label, defendant Campbell Soup Company has led consumers to believe that the canned soup contains more beef than vegetables.

However, the product’s back-label ingredient list mentions carrots and potatoes before beef, the case points out. The complaint explains that since ingredients are listed in order of predominance, the soup is made with greater amounts of vegetables than beef.

According to the filing, the United States Department of Agriculture has ruled that if a product is made with multiple ingredients, its name must reflect these ingredients in order of predominance.

“Applying this to a burrito with more beans than beef, a non-misleading, true name would be ‘Beans, Beef, and Rice Burrito,’ not a ‘Beef With Beans and Rice Burrito,’ where the amount of beans was greater than the amount of beef,” the case shares.

Campbell’s apparent failure to label its Chunky Beef with Country Vegetables soup in accordance with this rule renders the product misbranded under state and federal regulations, the suit argues.

What’s more, the lawsuit contends that by stating that the soup is made with “Country Vegetables,” Campbell has deceptively implied that the carrots and potatoes are prepared in the countryside.

“The potatoes and carrots are prepared at a scale significantly larger than what consumers would understand for a food prefaced by the descriptor, ‘country,’” the case alleges. “This scale means the use of industrial technology and machinery, the antithesis of visions conjured by the term, ‘country.’”

The plaintiff, a New York resident who has bought Campbell’s Chunky Beef with Country Vegetables soup several times over the past three years, says she and other consumers would have paid less for the product, or wouldn’t have bought it in the first place, had they known it was misleadingly advertised.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in New York who purchased Campbell’s Chunky Beef with Country Vegetables soup during the applicable statute of limitations period.

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