Class Action Claims MiO Beverage Enhancer Enhanced with Undisclosed Artificial Flavor [DISMISSED]
Last Updated on September 13, 2023
Hoffman v. Kraft Heinz Foods Company
Filed: January 15, 2022 ◆§ 7:22-cv-00397
A class action claims the peach mango variety of the MiO beverage flavoring concentrate is mislabeled given the “naturally flavored” product contains artificial flavor.
September 13, 2023 – MiO Artificial Flavor Class Action Dismissed by Federal Judge
The proposed class action detailed on this page was dismissed with prejudice by a federal judge on February 7, 2023.
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In an opinion and order issued that day, United States District Judge Kenneth M. Karas granted Kraft Heinz’s August 2022 motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s amended complaint, which was filed in June of that year.
According to the 29-page opinion and order, Judge Karas ruled that the plaintiff failed to plausibly allege that a reasonable consumer would be misled by Kraft Heinz’s representations of the product. The judge said that the ingredient list and front-label statement “natural flavor with other natural flavor” do not relay precisely what “natural flavors” are included and, importantly, “at no point does [the defendant] state that the product is only filled with natural flavors.”
“Instead, the only two representations that a reasonable consumer would see are two matching statements: that the Product contains ‘natural flavors,’” Judge Karas wrote. “As such, it is hard for the Court to see how a reasonable consumer would be misled merely because there may also be non-natural flavors.”
The judge further contended that the plaintiff’s allegations were “a far cry” from providing factual support through product testing to properly prove the MiO contains artificial malic acid, rather than its natural counterpart.
Per the judge’s ruling, the court formally closed the case on February 8, 2023.
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A proposed class action claims the peach mango variety of the MiO beverage flavoring concentrate is mislabeled given the “naturally flavored” product contains artificial flavor.
Echoing a case filed in early December 2021, the 15-page suit alleges Kraft Heinz Foods Company has deceived consumers by failing to state on MiO labels that the product is artificially flavored with dl-malic acid, which provides a tart, sweet and fruity taste. According to the complaint, consumers would not have bought peach mango-flavored MiO, or would have paid less for it, had they known it contained artificial flavors.
The suit states that federal and identical state regulations require a food’s label to disclose the source of its flavor. When a food’s characterizing, or main, flavors come from artificial sources, the product’s front label is required to prominently disclose such, the case relays.
As the lawsuit tells it, by stating that peach mango MiO gets its flavor from “Natural Flavor With Other Natural Flavor,” and omitting any reference to artificial flavor, Kraft Heinz leads consumers to believe that the product contains only natural flavors. In truth, however, malic acid is listed as the second most predominant ingredient on the product’s back label, and given that there are natural and artificial types of malic acid, Kraft Heinz is required to disclose whether an artificial version has been used, the lawsuit says.
“The Product could have used natural, L-Malic Acid, or (more) natural peach and natural mango flavor,” the complaint reads. “However, Defendant used artificial dl-malic Acid because it was lower-priced and/or more accurately resembled natural peach and natural mango flavor.”
Per the case, dl-malic acid is a “synthetic chemical manufactured from petroleum,” and consumers, the lawsuit argues, are “unable to learn the malic acid listed in the ingredients is the artificial version without a chemistry kit.”
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