Honey Maid Class Action Says Graham Cracker Labels are Misleading

Honey Maid graham crackers have come under fire in a recent class action lawsuit alleging that the products’ main ingredient is white flour instead of graham flour.

According to the Honey Maid class action, consumers are increasingly aware of the type of flours used in their products.

These customers are reportedly looking for whole grain flour, which uses the whole wheat grain, over refined white flour due to the added health benefits.

According to the Honey Maid class action, graham flour is a type of “coarse-ground” whole wheat flour, and consumers allegedly assume that Honey Maid graham crackers contain this flour.

However, plaintiff Keith Kennedy claims that the sweet crackers do not contain enough graham flour and instead consist of mainly refined white flour.

“It is reasonable for consumers expect the Products’ composition to conform to their name because the term ‘graham’ modifies ‘crackers’ and even taken alone, ‘grahams’ is understood to refer to snacks which have graham flour as the main flour ingredient,” Kennedy argues.

Dictionaries reportedly confirm these expectations, defining graham crackers as “a slightly sweet cracker made of whole wheat flour” and “a semisweet cracker, usually rectangular in shape, made chiefly of whole-wheat flour.”

The practice of mixing refined white flour with smaller amounts of whole wheat flour has allegedly been around for more than 100 years.

The Honey Maid graham crackers class action claims that Honey Maid adopts this practice to deceive their customers with false representations, tricking them into believing that the products contain whole wheat flour and graham flour.

Other graham cracker varieties reportedly follow through on their representations. Kennedy cites the ingredient lists of Annie’s Organic Honey Grahams and Remy’s Grahams, both of which include whole wheat flour. Annie’s Graham Crackers reportedly even specify that their products contain graham flour.

Honey Maid graham crackers reportedly fail to meet these standards and Kennedy claims branding their products as “graham crackers” is misleading due to the lack of graham flour.

“The term ‘grahams’ or ‘graham crackers’ to refer to the Products is also misleading because the name is not uniform among all identical or similar products which are designated as ‘graham crackers,’ where graham flour is the predominant flour,” the graham cracker class action claims.

Kennedy claims that he and other consumers paid a premium for Honey Maid graham crackers because they relied on the “misleading representations” of the company that their products contained graham flour.

The graham cracker class action lawsuit brings claims of violation of New York business law, negligent misrepresentation, breach of express warranty and implied warranty of merchantability, fraud, and unjust enrichment.

Kennedy seeks to represent a nationwide Class of consumers who purchased Honey Maid graham crackers, in addition to a Class of the same consumers from New York.

The Honey Maid graham crackers class action lawsuit seeks monetary damages, treble damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

Kennedy is represented by Spencer Sheehan of Sheehan & Associates PC and Joshua Levin-Epstein of Levin-Epstein & Associates PC.

The Honey Maid Graham Crackers Class Action Lawsuit is Kennedy v. Mondelez Global LLC, Case No. 1:19-cv-00302, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.