Frito-Lay Hit with Second Class Action Over “All-Natural” Claims

A second class action lawsuit was filed against Frito-Lay last week, claiming the company misleads consumers with false advertising claims that its Tostitos and SunChips products are made with “all-natural” ingredients.

New York resident Chris Shake alleges in the proposed class action lawsuit that despite packaging claims that Tostitos and SunChips are “all-natural,” the chips actually contain corn and vegetable oils made from genetically engineered plans. Shake says the deceptive claims caused him to pay an additional 10 cents per ounce of chips to buy what he thought were “all-natural” Tostitos and SunChips instead of a product such as Doritos, which makes no such claim.

The Tostitos and SunChips class action lawsuit says the presence of the genetically modified ingredients was uncovered during independent testing conducted on samples of Frito-Lay products labeled “all-natural.”

Shake says had he known the chips contained genetically  modified ingredients, who would not have paid a premium price for the “all-natural” chips, calling Frito-Lay’s labels “deceptive.”

“Genetically modified organisms are created artificially in a laboratory by swapping genetic material across species to exhibit traits not naturally theirs,” the Frito-Lay class action lawsuit says. “Since a reasonable consumer assumes that seeds created in such a way are not ‘all-natural,’ advertising Tostitos and SunChips as natural is deceptive and likely to mislead a reasonable consumer.”

A similar class action lawsuit over Frito-Lay’s deceptive advertising claims was filed in California federal court last December. Both lawsuits are seeking reimbursements for customers who thought they were purchasing an “all-natural” product.

The New York class action lawsuit estimates the amount of total damages will exceed $5 million.

The case is Chris Shake v. Frito-Lay North America, Inc. and PepsiCo, Inc., Case No. 12-cv-408, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York.