Gushers Contain Non-Natural DL-Malic Acid Flavoring Class Action

Gushers are a popular snack food consisting of candies filled with thick, fruit-flavored liquids, made by General Mills Sales, Inc. The complaint for this class action alleges that the representations made in marketing, packaging, and selling Gushers are false, deceptive, and misleading, because they cause consumers to expect that Gushers are made with only natural fruit flavors.

Two classes have been defined for this action:

• The Illinois Class is all persons in Illinois who bought the product during the applicable statutes of limitations.
• The Consumer Fraud Multi-State Class is all persons in Arkansas, Iowa, Utah, Idaho, Alaska, and Montana who bought the product during the applicable statutes of limitations.

The first page of the complaint shows an image of the Gushers box, bearing the phrases “Fruit Gushers,” “Fruit Flavored Snacks,” “Strawberry Splash—Flavored With Other Natural Flavors,” “Tropical Flavors—Flavored With Other Natural Flavors,” “No Artificial Flavors,” and “Gelatin Free,” along with images of colored liquids and individual pieces of the product.

Consumers these days prefer natural over artificial ingredients and flavors for many reasons, the complaint for this class action alleges, including that they believe natural ingredients are healthier. The Gushers box bears a rectangle with the words, “No Artificial Flavors,” which the complaint alleges “conveys to consumers that the Product will get its strawberry and tropical taste from only natural flavoring ingredients.”

However, page 6 of the complaint displays images of the ingredient panels for both the strawberry and tropical varieties which show both “Malic Acid” and “Natural Flavor.” In fact, “Malic Acid” comes earlier in the list than “Natural Flavor,” indicating that the snacks contain more malic acid than natural flavor.

However, according to the complaint, there are two isomers for malic acid, L-malic acid, which occurs naturally in fruits, and D-malic acid, which does not occur naturally. The complaint alleges that malic acid most commonly found as a mixture of the two called DL-malic acid, “which is commercially made from petroleum products.”

The complaint alleges that the mixture of natural sugars and artificial DL-malic acid “engineered to resemble the natural chemical combination of sugar and L-malic acid” in the Gushers strawberry and tropical fruit flavors “is not equivalent to the natural flavor of those characterizing fruits and flavors.”

In fact, the complaint alleges, “Laboratory analysis concluded the strawberry and tropical varieties of the Product contain artificial, DL-malic acid, instead of natural, L-malic acid.” It therefore contends that the representations on the Gushers box are misleading.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: All Natural Claims, Contains synthetic ingredients, Deceptive Advertising, Deceptive Labels