Class Action Claims Sara Lee Deceived Consumers About Butter Content in ‘All Butter’ Pound Cake [UPDATE]

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Sara Lee Frozen Bakery, LLC’s “All Butter Pound Cake” is misleadingly labeled in that consumers are unaware the product also contains soybean oil, another shortening ingredient, a proposed class action alleges.

According to the 13-page lawsuit, which echoes a similar case filed against Sara Lee last September, the pound cake’s labeling is deceiving to consumers in that they reasonably expect upon reading the front label’s “All Butter” statement that the food utilizes butter as its only shortening ingredient. The case claims the pound cake’s packaging is intentionally mislabeled.

“Defendant’s branding and packaging of the Product is designed to—and does—deceive, mislead, and defraud Plaintiff and consumers like Plaintiff,” the complaint scathes.

The case says consumers prefer butter to chemically produced vegetable oils for baking since the ingredient is considered to be tastier, healthier and less processed. Real butter, however, generally costs more than vegetable oil alternatives such as soybean or canola oil, the lawsuit relays.

According to the suit, when a food product includes the word “butter” in conjunction with its name, consumers generally expect every shortening ingredient in the food to be butter.

Per the case, the product, in truth, contains soybean oil as an additional shortening ingredient, contrary to consumers’ expectations. This is only revealed in the “small print” of the pound cake’s ingredients list, the complaint stresses.

Moreover, the pound cake’s ingredients list also reveals that the food contains annatto, which the case argues “bolsters Defendant’s misrepresentation that the Product contains more butter than it does” given the ingredient adds a yellowish hue to the dessert.

The case claims Sara Lee has sold more of its All Butter Pound Cake, and at higher prices, than it otherwise would have absent the allegedly misleading labeling.

“Had Plaintiff and other class members known the truth, they would not have bought the Product or would have paid less for it,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the U.S. who purchased Sara Lee All Butter Pound Cake for personal purposes at any time from January 1, 2016 “up through preliminary approval” of the class, with a proposed subclass of Illinois residents who fit the same criteria.

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