These days, it’s a selling point if a company can attest that a product is “Naturally Flavored.” Performance Enhancing Supplements, LLC, which does business as PEScience, advertises its Versalyte supplements, in citrus splash and wild berry varieties, as being “Naturally Flavored.” However, the complaint for this class action alleges that this is not true, because the products contain DL malic acid, a synthetic substance that provides tartness.
The class for this action is all consumers in California who bought the products between February 6, 2019 and February 6, 2023.
Consumers these days seek out “clean” products, which they believe to be better for them. The complaint cites a 2018 survey by L.E.K. Consulting that found that consumers prefer “clean” foods, with 69 percent committed to, or preferring to buy foods that had no artificial ingredients. According to the complaint, around 60 to 70 percent of consumers indicated they would pay more for “clean label” foods.
Versalyte is a supplement that is intended to increase hydration, thereby making workouts more effective and efficient and hastening recovery. Page 5 of the complaint shows two containers of the product, in the two flavors mentioned.
The front labels declare that the products are “Naturally Flavored” and show images of what a consumer might assume to be the flavor sources: for citrus splash, lemon and orange slices splashing into blue water, and for wild berry, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries also splashing into blue water. On the back label, however, the complaint alleges, the products state that they contain “Malic Acid” as well as “Natural Flavors.”
A natural form of malic acid does exist, the complaint admits, but “it is extremely expensive to formulate in large quantities and is almost never used in mass-produced food products. Instead, testing by an independent third-party laboratory has confirmed that the malic acid that [PEScience] uses in these Products is DL malic acid, a synthetic substance derived from petrochemicals.”
According to the complaint, DL malic acid is made from benzene or butane, “through a series of chemical reactions, some of which involve highly toxic chemical precursors and byproducts.”
The first problem, the complaint alleges, is that PEScience lists this substance that provides tartness by its generic name (“malic acid”) rather than by its specific name (“DL malic acid”). Secondly, the complaint faults PEScience for indicating, through both words and images of fruit, that the flavor is provided by the fruits or by natural flavors.
Quoting from federal laws, the complaint alleges, “If any artificial flavor is present which ‘simulates, resembles or reinforces’ the characterizing flavor, the front label must prominently inform consumers that the product is ‘Artificially Flavored.’
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
PEScience Versalyte Supplements Have Synthetic Flavoring Complaint
February 6, 2023
These days, it’s a selling point if a company can attest that a product is “Naturally Flavored.” Performance Enhancing Supplements, LLC, which does business as PEScience, advertises its Versalyte supplements, in citrus splash and wild berry varieties, as being “Naturally Flavored.” However, the complaint for this class action alleges that this is not true, because the product contains DL malic acid, a synthetic substance that provides tartness.
PEScience Versalyte Supplements Have Synthetic Flavoring ComplaintCase Event History
PEScience Versalyte Supplements Have Synthetic Flavoring Complaint
February 6, 2023
These days, it’s a selling point if a company can attest that a product is “Naturally Flavored.” Performance Enhancing Supplements, LLC, which does business as PEScience, advertises its Versalyte supplements, in citrus splash and wild berry varieties, as being “Naturally Flavored.” However, the complaint for this class action alleges that this is not true, because the product contains DL malic acid, a synthetic substance that provides tartness.
PEScience Versalyte Supplements Have Synthetic Flavoring Complaint