Dreyer’s Hit With Class Action Alleging High-Sugar Outshine Fruit Bars Are Misbranded

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream has misrepresented its Outshine Fruit Bars, given that the purportedly healthy snack contains a high amount of added sugar and synthetic ingredients not found in real fruit.

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The 44-page Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream class action lawsuit accuses the defendant of falsely branding its Outshine Fruit Bar products, which the company says are plant-based, made with real fruit and tasting “like biting into a piece of ripe fruit,” as a healthier alternative to traditional popsicles, representations reinforced on product packaging with images of fruits and plant leaves. Per the case, the packaging for Outshine bars also displays a statement that they contain “no artificial flavors” and represents that the bars are essentially equivalent to “frozen fruit on a stick.”

The complaint alleges, however, that the bars contain a plethora of synthetic ingredients, including guar gum, carob bean gum, malic acid, synthetic ascorbic acid and “natural flavor.” The filing says that “the need to supplement [Outshine fruit bars] with these ingredients underscored that the products are engineered, processed desserts, not simple frozen fruit.”  

Consumers are always on the lookout for healthier products, the case explains, citing a peer-reviewed paper from the Food and Drug Law Journal that says 62 percent of consumers avoid artificial flavors. The complaint argues that the packaging for Outshine bars has no “contains artificial flavors” statement, deliberately misleading consumers into thinking the bars are made purely from fruit.

The filing further claims that the Outshine bars “derive a substantial portion of their sweetness from refined cane sugar added during manufacturing.” Additionally, “nothing on the front of the package discloses that the products contain 24 grams of added sugar, or that the majority of the sugar is not the natural sugar found in whole fruit,” the lawsuit mentions.

Reasonable consumers are “not expected to inspect” the product’s health claims, the complaint says. Consumers rely heavily on a product’s marketing and packaging, but “numerous studies demonstrate most consumers cannot make accurate assessments of a food’s healthfulness based on the Nutrition Facts Panel,” the suit explains.

Labels for Outshine bars are intended to create a “healthy aura,” the case charges, “while masking the fact that the products contain highly processed and synthetic ingredients.”

The suit says that consumers don’t look at products “in a vacuum”; instead, they compare them to similar offerings from other brands. Dreyer’s, the case argues, uses language like “plant-based,” “made with real fruit,” and “no artificial flavors.” The Dreyer’s class action lawsuit alleges that consumers in search of a healthy alternative to traditional popsicles see this language and are misled into believing the product will not contain added sugar or synthetic ingredients.

The Dreyer’s Outshine class action lawsuit seeks to cover all United States residents who, during the applicable statutory period, purchased Outshine Fruit Bars primarily for consumption.

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