Christina Spicer  |  July 6, 2021

Category: Food

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(Photo Credit: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock)

Smoked gouda sold by popular grocery chain Aldi, Inc is not flavored exclusively by smoking, but by using liquid smoke, claims a class action lawsuit.  

Lead plaintiff, Nicole Vesota, accuses Aldi of using very little smoking to create its “smoked” gouda in a class action lawsuit filed in Illinois last week. Instead, the company relies on “natural smoke flavor,” or liquid smoke, but misleads consumers into thinking they are purchasing a product flavored only by a smoking process alleges the class action lawsuit.  

Vesota claims that she purchased Aldi’s Emporium Selection Smoked Gouda for $3.00 for 10 slices because she thought it was flavored entirely through a smoking process. She says that there is no way she or other consumers could know that the “Natural Smoke Flavor” listed as an ingredient referred to liquid smoke, a flavoring derived from smoke, and lacking in many of the compounds that would be present if the cheese had truly been smoked.  

The plaintiff contends that it is unlikely that Aldi Smoked Gouda received anything more than “a de minimis amount of smoking,” and the company relies on liquid smoke to flavor the product. However, the labeling does not impart that information to consumers, representing the product as “smoked,” not “smoke flavored” gouda.  

Vesota alleges that “smoke flavoring is unable to impart the same, real smoked taste of real smoking…because added smoke flavor cannot duplicate the smoked taste from smoking.” The class action lawsuit points out that a smoking process results in more than 400 flavor compounds, including pyrazines, aliphatic, aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, organic acids, esters, furans, phenols, carbonyl and noncarbonyl compounds, and various oxygen- and nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds. 

The plaintiff accuses Aldi of selling more of its smoked gouda at a higher price because it misrepresented the smoking process used to flavor the cheese in violation of state consumer protection laws. The class action lawsuit also accuses the grocer of fraud, misrepresentation, and unjust enrichment.  

Vesota wants to represent other consumers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, and Virginia who purchased Aldi Smoked Gouda.  

The class action lawsuit wants Aldi to pay damages to Class Members and to stop the alleged false advertising of its Emporium Selection Smoked Gouda.  

Do you purchase Aldi smoked gouda? Do you think the company misrepresents the product? Tell us in the comment section below! 

The plaintiff is represnted by Spencer Sheehan of Sheehan & Associates, PC.  

The Aldi Smoked Gouda Class Action Lawsuit is Vesota v. Aldi, Inc., Case No. 1:21-cv-03574 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.  


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34 thoughts onAldi Smoked Gouda Gets ‘Minimal’ Smoking, Says Class Action Lawsuit

  1. Alfreda Miles says:

    Add me please

  2. Angela Jackson says:

    Add me please

  3. Randy Koffarnus says:

    Please add me

  4. Sherry Przybylski says:

    Please add me

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