Dynamic Accident Lawyers: Federal Court Gives Green Light For Nectresse Class Action

A California federal court has given the green light to a class action lawsuit filed against Johnson & Johnson and McNeil Nutritionals, denying McNeil’s motion to dismiss claims of violating consumer protection laws.

The Nectresse class action lawsuit, which was originally filed in May 2014 by plaintiff Lorraine Viggiano, alleges that the company misleadingly labels Nectresse Natural No Calorie Sweetener as natural when it actually contains chemically processed and synthetic ingredients.

Nectresse was a new sugar substitute marketed by McNeil Nutritionals, the manufacturers of Splenda. Unlike Splenda, Nectresse Sweetener was advertised as being made from all natural ingredients, the lawsuit says. The product was discontinued late last year as a result of lackluster sales.

Still, Viggiano is challenging the food manufacturer’s claim that the sweetener is 100% natural and alleges that Nectresse is comprised of 83 percent erythritol — a synthetic sugar alcohol — and a highly processed form of monk fruit extract called Magou-VTM.

According to the Nectresse lawsuit, “This process is not the same process that is used in nature to produce the erythritol that is found in many vegetables and fruit…and McNeil actively conceals this material fact from consumers…McNeil’s representation that erythritol is a natural sweetener, produced by natural processes’ and that it is ‘found in many vegetables and fruits’ is misleading,” Viggiano states.

She further argues in the Nectresse lawsuit that McNeil failed to inform consumers that “just to produce the monk fruit extract, its supplier adds ethanol and other chemical resins in a patented multi-step process to purify it.”

Viggiano alleges that she and other consumers who purchased the sugar substitute instead of less expensive, comparable sugar-alternative sweeteners, relied on the defendant’s misrepresentation of the product’s natural ingredients.

What Does 100% Natural Mean?

In 2013, according to Nielsen, foods labeled “natural” generated $43 billion in sales. That’s more than five times the figure for foods carrying an “organic” label ($8.9 billion). A new Consumer Reports survey of 1,000 people found that two-thirds of respondents believed that a natural food packaging label meant that a food contained:

No artificial materials during processing
No pesticides
No artificial ingredients
No GMOs

More than half of those surveyed said that they specifically looked for a natural or 100% natural label on their foods. However, there are no real federal regulations around the word “natural.”

The FDA has an informal policy that it issued in 1993, which gently recommends that manufacturers use the term “natural” if “nothing artificial or synthetic . . . has been included in, or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in the food.”

Nectresse and Other 100% Natural Lawsuits

Even with the lack of regulation, plaintiffs can sue companies individually for false or deceptive advertising, and in recent years, consumers have done just that. Companies like Cargill, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, and Pepperidge Farms have all been accused of falsely marketing their products as all natural or 100% Natural and this only scratches the surface of the number of companies that are making these all natural claims.

A growing number of consumers who purchased food products falsely labeled as 100% natural are filing class action lawsuits against food companies alleging they are falsely advertising their products as 100% natural when in fact they contain artificial or synthetic ingredients.

The Nectresse Class Action Lawsuit is Lorraine Viggiano v. Johnson & Johnson, et al., Case No. 56-2014-00453587-CU-BC-VTA in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Ventura.

Join a Free Nectresse Natural Sweetener Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you used Nectresse Natural Sweetener No Calories Sweetener to find out that it isn’t 100% Natural as the label claimed and not made entirely from monk fruit, you may have a legal claim.

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