Daiso Japanese Foods Mistranslated Ingredient Lists Class Action

Daiso California, LLC and Daiso Holding USA, Inc. sell Japanese food products in the US. The products’ original ingredient labels are in Japanese, with an English-language ingredient list printed on a sticker that is pasted onto the packaging of the products sold in stores in the US and online. But the complaint for this class action alleges that the ingredient label is improperly translated and, for example, does not always name ingredients such as tree nuts, which many consumers are allergic to.

Three classes have been defined for this action:

• The California Class is all consumers in California who bought the products during the applicable liability period, for personal use and not for resale or distribution.
• The Nationwide Class is all consumers in the US who bought the products during the applicable liability period, for personal use and not for resale or distribution.
• The Multi-State Class is all consumers in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, or Wyoming who bought the products during the applicable liability period, for personal use and not for resale or distribution.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff for this action, Makiko Fukaya, ate a Tiramisu Twist Cookie product she bought at a Daiso store in Daly City, California and then suffered a “violent allergic reaction[.]” The English-language sticker did not identify any nuts in the product, but when Fukaya peeled it off, the complaint alleges “the original Japanese language label identified two nut products as ingredients.

Fukaya’s attorney contacted Daiso, which acted the next day to recall its Tiramisu Twist Cookie around the world. However, the complaint alleges this did not solve the problem. “Apparently,” the complaint claims, Daiso “treated this as an isolated incident and failed to systematically review the other translated ingredient lists on [Daiso’s] other packaged food that it imports and sells.”

Fukaya bought other Daiso products after that, but this time she read the Japanese ingredient label on each and compared it to the English label pasted over the product, and the complaint claims she discovered the same problem with a “Caramel Corn” product from a company known as Tohato. The English-language ingredient list did not mention tree nuts, the complaint alleges, but its original Japanese-language counterpart listed almonds, a tree nut.

The complaint alleges, “The concern here is that whatever process is being used to translate the original Japanese ingredient label to the English[-]language sticker label placed on the original packaging is woefully inadequate and is endangering the lives of consumers based on these mislabeled ingredient lists.” According to the complaint, Daiso has been warned that the English-language labels are not adequately translated, but it has not made a thorough review of the process.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Breach of warranty, Deceptive Labels, Mislabeled Ingredients, Translation