Clif Bar Hit with Class Action Over Allegedly ‘Misleading’ Labeling of White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bars [UPDATE: DISMISSED]
Last Updated on February 28, 2020
Joslin et al. v. Clif Bar & Company
Filed: August 14, 2018 ◆§ 4:18-cv-04941-JSW
Clif Bar & Company faces a lawsuit over allegations that certain products are deceptively labeled to indicate they contain real white chocolate when, in fact, the opposite is true.
Case Updates
Update – August 26, 2019 – Lawsuit Dismissed
This lawsuit was dismissed on August 26, 2019 after a California district judge ruled that the plaintiffs “need only inspect the ingredient list” to discover that the products don’t contain real white chocolate.
In an order granting Clif Bar’s motion to dismiss, the judge wrote that the plaintiffs failed to prove they would suffer future harm because they never said they intended to purchase White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Clif bars or White Chocolate Macadamia Luna bars in the future. Even if they did, the judge noted, they could simply check the products’ ingredients list to find out if they contained real white chocolate.
According to the order, the labels on the two products are not misleading because they display the phrase “Natural Flavor,” which should signify to buyers that the energy bars are only white chocolate-flavored rather than made up of real white chocolate—a fact that can be confirmed by the ingredient lists.
The judge dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims but gave them leave to amend, noting that at this stage, the court can’t conclude that their amendment would be “futile.”
According to a proposed class action lawsuit filed in mid-August, Clif Bar & Company’s White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bars and Luna White Chocolate Macadamia Bars are deceptively labeled to indicate they contain white chocolate when, in fact, the opposite is true. The 30-page complaint, filed in California, alleges the defendant’s labeling of the specified products has misled consumers into purchasing “a more inferior product than they had bargained for.”
Citing potential violations of consumer protection laws in all 50 states, the case states that bona fide white chocolate is partially imparted by milkfat, with U.S., Canadian and European regulators specifying that white chocolate, to be considered as such, must have at least 3.5 percent milkfat. More specifically, the FDA defines the components of white chocolate in clear terms, one of which stipulates that it must be prepared by “intimately mixing and grinding cacao fat” with one or more optional dairy ingredients. True white chocolate must also be free from coloring material, the suit points out.
The defendant’s products allegedly fail to meet these marks.
“Since white chocolate does not contain the cacao solids that impart chocolate with its flavor and which consumers normally associate with chocolate, consumers rely on the FDA to assure that white chocolate more closely resembles what they know as chocolate,” the case reads.
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