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A 'naturally-flavored' claim on Aldi's Millville Fruit & Grain cereal bars packaging has brought legal troubles for the chain, as it faces a class action lawsuit. The product liability lawsuit was filed by the plaintiff Deana Lozano on May 30, 2023. It seeks over $10 million from the chain for damages caused by the misrepresentation of the Fruit & Grain cereal bars.
According to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Courts, California Central District Court, the packaging of the chain's granola bars claims that the product contains "real fruit filling" and "no artificial flavors." However, the list of ingredients mentions that the Millville Fruit & Grain cereal bars contain - malic and citric acids, along with artificial and natural flavors.
The lawsuit states that the ingredients of the granola bars fail to align with the 'natural' claims on the packaging. This, according to the lawsuit, misinforms the consumer, along with violating several other California codes for businesses.
Aldi's class action lawsuit is yet to be heard in the California Central District Court
With customers actively switching to food products with natural ingredients, natural claims on the packaging have become a common practice to make the products more appealing to them. However, the claims might not always be true as the lax regulations around them enable brands to use artificial ingredients while still marketing the product as natural.
A similar case came to notice this month when the plaintiff Deana Lozano took Aldi's to court with a lawsuit over the natural flavors and ingredients claim in the Millville Fruit & Grain cereal bars. The California court class action lawsuit is seeking an amount of nearly $10 million in damages. It states that the product contains artificial flavors and ingredients while misinforming customers with claims like "real fruit filling" and "no artificial flavors."
The plaintiff states that Aldi has been misinforming customers with the natural claims, while the granola bars contain much more than just natural flavors and ingredients. Two of the ingredients present in the granola bars - malic and citric acids - may exist naturally in food but are often manufactured artificially. Additionally, they are commonly used as preservatives.
The artificial flavors used in the Aldi product also fail to align with the packaging claims of "no artificial flavors," thus misrepresenting the product and misinforming customers. The lawsuit is yet to be heard in the California Central District Court, hence it is not clear if it will proceed to a trial by jury. A similar 2021 General Mills lawsuit ended with the court leaving the case for a later ruling.
There are no official dentitions for ''natural" in the United States, but the two federal authorities - FDA and FSIS have specific policies regarding the claim. As per the FDA, a product can be considered natural only if it contains no artificial or synthetic materials that are not normally present in food.
The FSIS, on the other hand, only considers products to be natural when they do not contain any sort of artificial flavors or flavoring agents, coloring ingredients, chemical preservatives, or other synthetic ingredients.
