Natural Vanilla Flavor? Lawsuit Claims Label of Orgain Kids Protein Shake Is Misleading

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action claims the labeling of Orgain, LLC’s vanilla-flavored Kids Protein Organic Nutritional Shake is misleading in that it does not divulge that the product’s characterizing flavor comes from artificial sources. 

The 17-page case says the kids protein shake’s label gives consumers the impression that the product’s vanilla flavor is derived from only natural ingredients, and does not contain artificial flavors, due to the depiction of a vanilla flower and the absence of certain qualifying language.

According to the lawsuit, the product’s flavor is derived from artificial vanillin, which lends the shake a sweet and creamy flavor while lacking certain other qualities found in real vanilla. For vanillin to be described as a “natural flavor,” as it is in the product’s ingredients list, it must come from a natural source and be made through natural processes, such as distillation, roasting, heating, enzymolysis or fermentation, the suit says. 

“The representations of ‘Vanilla Flavor’ with the vanilla flower and ingredient listing of ‘natural flavor’ are misleading because the Product uses artificial flavor,” the case alleges. “This is false, misleading and deceptive because the only natural vanillin is not isolated commercially because it is part of ‘vanilla extract.’”

According to the FDA, the lawsuit says, any non-vanilla flavor compounds that simulate vanilla but are not derived from vanilla beans are considered artificial flavors. A product purporting to have a characterizing flavor of vanilla that’s flavored predominantly by vanillin must be labeled as “artificially flavored,” the case asserts.

With regard to the Orgain shake’s ingredients list, the lawsuit says the inclusion of vanillin in the product is unlawfully concealed with the generic term “natural flavors.”

“The Product’s ingredient list tacitly reveals it is not flavored exclusively with vanilla because it lists the generic ingredient ‘natural flavor’ instead of vanilla extract,” the complaint reads.

Orgain was able to sell more of the product, and at higher prices, due to its misrepresentations and “affirmative statements, half-truths, and omissions,” the suit alleges. Neither the plaintiff nor proposed class members would have bought the product, or would have paid as much for the protein shake, had they known its vanilla flavor was not derived naturally, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit’s filing comes a little more than a month after Orgain Management, Inc. was hit with a separate proposed class action that similarly alleged the label of the company’s Unsweetened Vanilla Almondmilk “falsely and misleadingly” characterized the product’s vanilla flavor as naturally derived. 

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.