Family Dollar’s Eatz ‘Smoked Almonds’ Not Actually Smoked, Class Action Claims

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A proposed class action out of New York takes issue with the labeling of Family Dollar Stores’ Eatz “Smoked Almonds,” claiming the nuts do not derive their flavor from actually being smoked.

According to the case, the “smoked almonds” statement and red color scheme covering the front label of Eatz almonds are “direct representations” that the product’s primary recognizable flavor is “smoke,” such that consumers would reasonably expect the snack to derive its flavor from the actual process of smoking.

Smoking, the lawsuit explains, is a method of food preparation by which a food is cooked over a fire containing various kinds of wood chips that imbue different flavors.

As the lawsuit tells it, consumers prefer foods that are flavored by their characterizing ingredient or natural production process as opposed to those flavored with essential oils and extracts, arguing that products labeled with only their characterizing flavor are expected to contain no additional artificial flavor that “simulates, resembles or reinforces the characterizing flavor.”

Because the front label of Eatz Smoked Almonds contains no qualifiers—i.e. language such as “flavor,” “flavored,” “natural smoke flavor,” or “artificial smoke flavored”—no reasonable consumer would be “so distrustful or skeptical” of the label’s representations as to check the ingredients list for additional flavor components. Moreover, almonds that are actually smoked are common enough such that it’s not a consumer’s responsibility to look into the claims made on a product label, the suit relays.

“Smoked almonds that get their smoked taste from being smoked are not a rare or pricy delicacy that would make a reasonable consumer ‘double check’ the veracity of the front label claims,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit argues, however, that Eatz Smoked Almonds get their flavor not from actually being smoked, but from the “Natural Smoke Flavor” listed on the product’s ingredients list.

According to the case, Family Dollar’s label representations are “deceptive and misleading” to consumers, who the lawsuit contests would not have purchased the product, or would have paid less for it, had they known the almonds were not actually smoked.

The suit comes as part of a growing trend of litigation against food manufacturers over their purportedly “smoked” products, including two cases filed earlier this year over Blue Diamond Growers’ “Smokehouse” almonds and Dietz & Watson’s “Smoked” gouda.

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