O Organics Kombucha Class Action Says Alcohol Content Understated

A customer has filed a class action lawsuit against O Organics LLC and Lucerne Foods Inc. claiming that the companies’ kombucha contains more than the legally allowed .5 percent alcohol by volume threshold required for a beverage to be labeled as “non-alcoholic.”

Plaintiff Gary Freedline says he purchased the O Organics Kombucha: Pomegranate Hibiscus Lime flavor and the Mango Mint flavor.

He claims that he bought these with the belief that the products were non-alcoholic.

The O Organics Kombucha class action alleges that the products Freedline purchased did not bear a government warning about the dangers of consuming alcohol, nor did they bear a notice of their alcohol content.

Freedline also states that he did not have to show any identification of his age to buy the O Organics Kombucha beverages. Allegedly, the beverages were displayed in a section separate from the alcoholic beverages.

According to the O Organics Kombucha class action, despite the lack of representations these beverages contain more than .5 percent alcohol by volume, and should therefore not be classified as non-alcoholic.

Freedline also says that they contain more than the advertised amount of sugar, which is partly why there is more alcohol in the drinks than advertised.

The O Organics Kombucha alcohol content class action lawsuit notes that kombucha is a beverage made of fermented tea, and states that the fermentation takes place as mixture of bacteria and yeast, known as a scoby (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast).

Freedline goes on to explain that the scoby converts sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol.

Allegedly, the O Organics Kombucha is not pasteurized. According to the O Organics class action, some kombucha available on the market is pasteurized, a process that kills the yeast in the kombucha, preventing the fermentation process from continuing and making the beverage more alcoholic.

In contrast, Freedline states that the lack of pasteurization in O Organics Kombucha allows the beverage to continue to ferment and become more alcoholic over time.

Additionally, Freedline argues that there is more sugar in the beverages than is advertised, which provides the scoby with more nutrients and allows more fermentation to occur, which in turn raises the alcohol content.

The class action states that this natural conversion of sugar into alcohol in unpasteurized kombucha can result in alcohol levels as high as four percent alcohol by volume (and even higher), which Freedline states is “roughly the same alcohol content as regular beer.”

The O Organics Kombucha class action lawsuit claims that Freedline and other consumers who purchased the kombucha were financially injured by their purchases. Freedline says that he intentionally purchased the kombucha because it is non-alcoholic, and he would not have purchased it had he known that it was alcoholic.

Allegedly, having an alcoholic beverage labeled as non-alcoholic effectively tricks individuals who do not want to consume alcohol into drinking it.

The O Organics class action states that customers like children, pregnant women, and people with alcohol dependence problems may unwittingly consume alcohol when drinking O Organics Kombucha.

Freedline is represented by L. Timothy Fisher, Yeremey Krivoshey, Frederick J. Klorczyk III, and Scott A. Bursor of Bursor & Fisher PA.

The O Organics Kombucha Alcohol Content Class Action Lawsuit is Gary Freedline v. O. Organics LLC and Lucerne Foods Inc., Case No. 3:19-cv-01945-EDL, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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