In Santiful v Wegmans Food Market, 20-CV-2933 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 28, 2022) the Circuit Court dismissed plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint, which was a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that its vanilla cake mixes are misleadingly labeled. The lead plaintiffs say that the Wegmans brand vanilla cake mix contains nonvanilla flavors that provide the taste of vanilla but are not disclosed on the label as required by law and the expectations of consumers.
The case claims that although the cake mix sold by Wegmans is described as “Vanilla” on the front of the box, the product’s characterizing vanilla flavor comes predominantly from undeclared non-vanilla sources. In fact, the suit alleges, vanilla beans or other vanilla-sourced flavors are notably absent from the list of the product’s ingredients, which denotes “natural flavors” as the cake mix’s only flavoring ingredient.
The lawsuit claims the use of the term “natural flavors” in the product’s ingredients list indicates that the cake mix contains non-vanilla flavors such as vanillin that “imitate and extend vanilla” but are not sourced from vanilla beans. According to the suit, these artificial flavors must be disclosed to consumers on the front label in order for the packaging to comply with both food labeling law and consumer expectations.
Judge Nelson S. Roman dismissed and stated that the plaintiffs had failed to show that a reasonable consumer would be misled by the vanilla cake mix packaging. According to the District Judge, the amended complaint offered no evidence supporting the argument that the product’s labeling implies that its flavor is derived predominantly from vanilla extract. “The Amended Complaint’s allegations that consumers expect the Product to be flavored mainly or predominantly with flavoring from vanilla beans are conclusory statements that the Court is not required to accept,” the judge wrote.
The order further noted that similar claims have been “repeatedly rejected in near-identical lawsuits” involving vanilla products. The judge agreed with the analyses in those cases, finding that Wegmans never claimed anywhere on the vanilla cake mix packaging that the product was flavored mostly with real vanilla or is made with vanilla extract.
“Most devastating” to the plaintiffs’ argument, the order stated, is that the apparently artificial flavors mentioned in the complaint-ethyl vanillin, vanillin, maltol and piperonal-can be either artificial or natural, and the plaintiffs failed to allege that these flavors were artificially derived. “Absent any factually substantiated allegations that these flavors are in fact not derived from natural sources, the Court finds Plaintiffs have failed to allege the presence of artificial flavors and therefore their claims about the ingredient list fails.”
Nevertheless, the judge gave the plaintiffs leave to file a second amended complaint but remained “skeptical” that they would be able to substantiate their allegations.