7-Eleven Wasabi Delight Snack Mix Contains No Real Wasabi, Class Action Claims

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action alleges 7-Eleven’s private label Wasabi Delight Flavored Snack Mix is falsely labeled in that the product contains no actual wasabi.

The 18-page lawsuit, citing the product’s ingredients list, says that the only “wasabi” ingredients in the 7-Eleven snack mix are crunchy wasabi peanuts and wasabi green peas, which are flavored by wasabi powder and artificial wasabi flavor, respectively. According to the suit, the wasabi powder is made not from real wasabi—a Japanese spice derived from a plant in the cabbage family—but from maltodextrin and mustard seed.

“According to the American Chemical Society, much of what is sold outside of Japan as ‘wasabi’ is a mix of horseradish, mustard seeds, and artificial dyes,” the lawsuit reads. 

The popular Japanese snack historically consists of roasted or fried legumes—peanuts, soybeans or peas—coated with wasabi powder mixed with sugar, salt or oil, and eaten as a crunchy snack, the lawsuit says, stressing that “[t]hese wasabi snacks are made with actual wasabi.”

Per the suit, real wasabi “tastes bright and pungent” with a hit of heat that fades quickly, and is valued for its nutritive and antioxidant properties. Fake wasabi, the case relays, burns much hotter and longer given its horseradish and mustard components. 

The case contends that 7-Eleven, seeking to capitalize on the demand for wasabi snacks, has promoted and labeled its snack mix product in a manner that indicates the product is made with real wasabi. According to the complaint, the product’s labeling as “Wasabi Delight Flavored Snack Mix,” as well as the image of chopsticks holding a wasabi pea and description that the mix contains crunchy wasabi peanuts and green peas, relays to consumers that the product contains at least some wasabi. 

Per the case, federal and state regulations require a food labeled as “wasabi” to disclose the source of its characterizing flavor, i.e., whether it’s made from real wasabi ingredients or from other sources. Consumers have grown accustomed to a product’s front label disclosing the source of the food’s flavor, such that the absence of any disclosure is taken to mean a product does not have artificial flavor, the complaint contends. 

Moreover, the lawsuit says the dye-added coloring of the snack mix’s peas and peanuts “further[s] the false impression the Product contains some wasabi.” 

“Reasonable consumers must and do rely on a company to honestly identify and describe the components, attributes, and features of a product, relative to itself and other comparable products or alternatives,” the filing argues. “By labeling the product in this manner, Defendant gained an advantage against other companies, and against consumers seeking to purchase a product that contained some wasabi and did not contain artificial wasabi flavor.” 

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.