Lawsuit Claims Packaging of Hood’s ‘Vanilla Bean’ Ice Cream Misleads Buyers as to Source of Vanilla Flavor

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A proposed class action claims the packaging of HP Hood LLC’s “Vanilla Ice Cream With Ground Vanilla Beans” is misleading to consumers because it fails to disclose that the dessert is flavored mostly by artificial vanillin.

Per the case, consumers who rely upon the defendant’s label representations would have no idea that the “ground vanilla beans” purportedly used in the product are no more than “exhausted” vanilla bean seeds that provide no flavor. According to the suit, consumers have paid more for the product than they otherwise would have absent Hood’s allegedly misleading package labeling.

“Defendant’s marketing is designed to – and does – deceive, mislead, and defraud Plaintiff and consumers,” the complaint alleges.

Whereas vanilla ice cream is typically made with vanilla extract, vanilla bean ice cream is flavored from the seeds contained in the vanilla pod, which are scraped out and added to the ice cream, appearing as “tiny black specks,” the lawsuit says. Vanilla bean ice cream has a “more intense” flavor than regular vanilla ice cream that’s flavored by vanilla extract, a solution of concentrated vanilla flavor extracted from the seeds, given the seeds themselves provide a more concentrated source of flavor, the suit relays.

The case claims that although small black specks in ice cream have, in the past, indicated to consumers that the product was flavored with real vanilla beans, the dark specks in Hood’s vanilla ice cream are actually a flavorless byproduct derived from the production of vanilla extract.

According to the lawsuit, companies such as the defendant purchase “exhausted” seeds from which the vanilla flavor has already been extracted to produce vanilla extract and use them to give the appearance that their ice cream was made with real vanilla beans, even though the seeds “are incapable of imparting any flavor.”

“Defendant’s Vanilla Bean Ice Cream likewise contains exhausted vanilla bean specks, which deceives consumers because they are unaware that the seeds are added to the Product after all flavor has been removed,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit’s argument leans on several alleged facts, including that the specks in Hood’s ice cream are smaller than unexhausted vanilla seeds. Moreover, if the ice cream’s vanilla flavor came from “ground vanilla beans” as the defendant suggests, there would be no need to also include “Natural Flavor” in the product, the suit says. The case claims the presence of “Natural Flavor,” which likely consists of synthetic vanillin, is a “tacit acknowledgment” that the ground vanilla beans “are intended for visual effect.”

Per the complaint, consumers were misled by the defendant’s representation that its ice cream contains “ground vanilla beans” and would have no way of knowing that the flavor in the product was actually derived from synthetic vanillin, which offers a “lackluster ‘chemical-like’ taste and odor.”

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