Class Action Claims Rite Aid Falsely Labels Dreamhouse Fine Foods Pecans as Containing ‘Evaporated Cane Juice’

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Rite Aid Corporation finds itself as the defendant in a proposed class action filed by a consumer who claims the company’s Dreamhouse Fine Foods-brand sweet-and-salty pecan halves are misleadingly labeled with regard to the amount of sugar in the product.

The 11-page lawsuit claims that Rite Aid, rather than declare that its pecan halves contain sugar, instead includes the ingredient “evaporated cane juice” in the product’s ingredients list. As the lawsuit tells it, this gives consumers the false impression that the pecans’ sweet glaze derives from an actual juice, when, in fact, the products are coated with unidentified sugar.

More specifically, the case claims, consumers are likely to think purchasing Rite Aid’s Fine Foods pecan halves is “a better nutritional choice” than other comparable products that truthfully identify sugar as an ingredient. “Evaporated cane juice,” the lawsuit says, simply does not describe the basic nature of Rite Aid’s product because it is wholly not a type of juice.

Moreover, the lawsuit argues the term “evaporated cane juice” has material bearing on how much a consumer may be willing to pay for a particular product. The suit offers that consumers “will pay more for products with positive qualities,” such as those indicated by the inclusion of a “juice” ingredient, as opposed to stating outright the inclusion of “sugar” as an ingredient.

“Had [the plaintiff] and class members known the truth about the Products, they would not have bought the product or would have paid less for it,” the lawsuit reads.