A judge has ordered multiple plaintiffs suing Whole Foods over an inaccurate food label to consolidate into one class action suit. The grocery store is under fire for food labeling that understated the amount of sugar in one of its yogurt products.
In July, Consumer Reports conducted six independent tests of the Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value Plain Greek Yogurt, and found that it contained 11.4 grams of sugar per 170-gram serving. At the time, the label claimed that it had only two grams of sugar. The New York Post reports that even Greek yogurt with no added sweetener typically contains more than two grams of sugar.
Whole Foods' website claimed that a registered dietician regularly reviews the store's nutritional labels for accuracy.
"Unless this statement on the defendant's Web site is false, then Whole Foods Market was fully aware of the contents of its store-brand Greek yogurt and of the fact that the yogurt's actual sugar content was dramatically higher than what is stated on the label," reads the suit, according to The New York Post.
Whole Foods has removed its 365 Everyday Value Plain Greek Yogurt from store shelves while the litigation is pending.
Cases like this one show that food producers, manufacturers and retailers need to develop an aggressive strategy for addressing lawsuits, as the industry is increasingly the target of major litigation. Regular fact-checking of nutritional labels can proactively uncover problems, potentially avoiding future legal action and negative publicity. Another crucial element of such a strategy is investing in an industrial label printer so that it is possible to make revisions to labels quickly and efficiently, without relying on a third-party printing company.