Class Action Claims Nonni’s Limone Biscotti Lacks Disclosure on Source of Characterizing Lemon Flavor

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A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed over the alleged failure of Nonni’s Foods LLC to disclose on product packaging that the lemon zest flavor in its Limone Biscotti cookies is not derived exclusively from lemon oil or zest from lemon rinds. 

According to the 13-page suit, the packaging of the defendant’s Limone Biscotti includes representations that the cookies are made with real sugar, butter and lemon zest oil and contain real ingredients and no artificial flavors. Further, the packaging displays imagery of lemon rinds, which consumers effectively assume lend the biscotti their characterizing flavor, the case says. The lawsuit argues, however, that when a company claims a product’s characterizing flavor is lemon without including any qualifying terms—such as “flavored,” “with other natural flavors” or “artificially flavored”—a consumer may get the false impression that real lemons and/or lemon oil or extract are the sole source of the product’s lemon taste.

Given Nonni’s label representations for its Limone Biscotti, “consumers will expect the Product contains sufficient lemon oil and/or lemon extract from lemons” to produce the cookies’ flavor with no other flavors present from non-lemons or artificial sources that “simulate, resemble, reinforce, enhance or extend” the flavoring from real lemons, the lawsuit says.

As the lawsuit tells it, a look at the cookies’ ingredients list reveals that Nonni’s Limone Biscotti include “natural flavors,” which the plaintiff says indicates the presence of undisclosed, non-lemon flavoring agents. The case argues that because lemon oil and/or lemon zest oil are not separately identified in the cookies’ ingredients list, their presence in the product comes as a component of the “natural flavors,” which may include “either enhancers or other non-lemon natural flavors.” 

“Lemon oil is understood by consumers to be a food, which requires it to be designated by its common or usual name of ‘lemon oil’ or ‘lemon zest oil,’” the case contests. “The front label gives consumers the false impression that the Product’s flavor is exclusively from lemon (zest) oil.”

The lawsuit argues that the presence of an artificial flavor in a particular product is materially important to consumers in that the absence of such tells a buyer that the product does not contain any unnatural flavoring. Nonni’s Foods’ Limone Biscotti packaging “is designed to—and does—deceive, mislead, and defraud” consumers who may not have bought the product, or would have paid less, had they know the source of the cookies’ lemon flavoring, the lawsuit alleges.

“The value of the Product that [the] plaintiff purchased and consumed was materially less than its value as represented by [the] defendant,” the suit claims.