Kroger “Coffee Creamer” Contains No Dairy Ingredients Class Action

This class action takes issue with a Kroger Company coffee whitener that is labeled as being a coffee creamer and as having been “ultra-pasteurized.” The complaint alleges that this labeling falsely leads consumers to think that the product contains dairy ingredients.

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 South Dakota, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, Alaska, and Idaho who bought the product during the applicable statutes of limitations.

Cream is a dairy product, often used in coffee, that dictionary definitions specify is at least 18 percent milkfat. Non-dairy coffee whiteners are often used as a substitute, but the complaint alleges that they used to be prominently labeled as not containing dairy ingredients, with such statements as “A Vegetable Product—Contains No Milk or Milk Fat,” “Non-Dairy Creamer,” or “To Whiten and Enrich Coffee.”

The product at issue is labeled as a “Coffee Creamer.” Page 3 of the complaint shows the bottle and label with the words “Coffee Creamer” and “Ultra-Pasteurized,” but no mention that it is a non-dairy product.

The law requires dairy drinks to be pasteurized, and the complaint alleges that consumers, who have mostly grown up drinking milk, associate pasteurization with dairy drinks. “By representing the Product as a ‘Coffee Creamer’ which has been ‘Ultra-Pasteurized,’ without any ‘Non-Dairy’ statement,” the complaint claims, Kroger leads “consumers [to] expect dairy ingredients.”

Page 3 of the complaint reproduces the ingredient list for the product, with the first three ingredients being, “Water, Sugar, [and] High Oleic Soybean Oil[.]” The complaint claims that these are used instead of cream or other dairy ingredients to reduce Kroger’s costs. The only dairy ingredient included, the complaint alleges, is “a de minimis amount of sodium caseinate, a milk derivative…”

In particular, the complaint claims, the name of the product, “Coffee Creamer,” is almost the same as “coffee cream,” which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines as a dairy product “which contains not less than 18 percent but less than 30 percent milkfat.”

According to the complaint, consumes “value cream over non-dairy coffee whiteners made from vegetable oils because milkfat contains hundreds of aroma compounds, or lactones, which provide its ‘creamy’ taste.” Also, the complaint says, “Research indicates fats in dairy ingredients like cream do not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease or increase cholesterol, in contrast to vegetable oils like soybean oil, known for harmful trans fats.”

Cream also provides more nutrients, the complaint alleges, like protein, calcium, and vitamins A, D, E, and K.

The complaint alleges that, because of the misleading representations, consumers were willing to pay higher prices for the product than they would otherwise have been willing to pay.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Deceptive Advertising, Deceptive Labels, Does Not Contain Implied Ingredients