Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera Gel Lawsuit Alleges Missing Active Ingredient

A growing number of lawsuits are challenging phony aloe vera products. Aloe vera gel sold by CVS, Target, Rite Aid, and other companies are coming under fire for not containing acemannan, the active ingredient in aloe vera.

One such lawsuit takes issue with an aloe vera gel made by Fruit of the Earth Inc.

Customers in the Fruit of the Earth aloe vera gel lawsuit claim that companies are misrepresenting products as containing genuine aloe vera, both on the product’s label and on advertisements.

However, plaintiffs say these products do not contain aloe vera’s essential, active ingredient.

Aloe Vera’s Active Ingredient

A compound known as acemannan is aloe vera’s active ingredient, and is what gives it its antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and other desirable properties. The Fruit of the Earth aloe vera gel lawsuit explains improper manufacturing processes can produce aloe products that do not contain much, if any, acemannan.

Customers assert that aloe vera products without acemannan are much less valuable to consumers than those with it, and say that customers seek out aloe vera products specifically for the acemannan.

According to the Fruit of the Earth aloe vera gel lawsuit, independent testing should have discovered about a half of a gram of acemannan in a bottle of the gel, but none was found.

Fruit of the Earth customers say they are financially injured by this practice because had they known that the products were mislabeled, they would not have purchased the product at all or would not have paid as much as they did for it.

Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera Gel Lawsuit

In the case of the Fruit of the Earth aloe vera gel lawsuit, customers who claimed that the product did not contain acemannan and was therefore mislabeled, cited testing done by ConsumerLab.com. 

Customers in the Fruit of the Earth aloe vera gel lawsuit say that they followed up on this testing with testing of their own, which yielded similar results.

Additionally, customers have pointed to the fact that the International Aloe Science Council has established that “products that do not contain Acemannan are not considered to be true aloe vera.”

The Fruit of the Earth aloe vera gel lawsuit asserts that the company knows that its product does not contain the active ingredient and intentionally mislabels it to make it seem more attractive to customers than it otherwise would be.

Did you purchase Fruit of the Earth aloe vera? What did you think of it? Leave us a comment in the section below.

Customers in the 2016 Fruit of the Earth aloe vera gel lawsuit were represented by Michael F. Ram and Susan Brown of Ram Olson Cereghino & Kopczynski LLP, Jonathan N. Shub of Kohn Swift & Graf PC; Nick Suciu III of Barbat Mansour & Suciu PLLC; Jason Thompson and Lance Young of Sommers Schwartz PC; Rachel Soffin of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group, and Gregory F. Coleman of Greg Coleman Law PC.

The Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera Gel Lawsuit is La Tanya James, et al. v. Fruit of the Earth Inc., Case No. 4:16-cv-03014-YGR, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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