Trader Joe’s Manuka Honey Class Action Tossed

Trader Joe’s successfully beat a class action lawsuit alleging its manuka honey was not as pure as the grocer claimed.

Plaintiffs in the Trader Joe’s class action accused the retailer of selling manuka honey that was adulterated with non-manuka honey.

However, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kandis A. Westmore determined that the Trader Joe’s class action could not move forward because no reasonable consumer would believe that honey from bees would have only one floral source.

“The fraud cause of action is predicated on a valid adulteration theory — one in which humans (not bees) purposefully mix [non-manuka] honey with manuka honey,” Judge Westmore stated. “Since plaintiffs confirmed at the hearing that they do not allege that humans engaged in adulteration, the fraud claim is not actionable.”

Manuka honey is made when the producing bees pollinate flowers from the manuka bush. The manuka bush, which is native to New Zealand, reportedly helps produce honey with medicinal products. Due to the high antibacterial properties of the honey, it is reportedly effective in dressing wounds, burns, and skin ulcers as well as in reducing inflammation.

The Trader Joe’s honey class action lawsuit filed in July 2018 claimed that samples of the retailer’s manuka honey showed that only 57.3 to 62.6 percent of the pollen found in the honey was from the manuka flower. Because almost half of the product’s pollen was from other flower sources, the plaintiffs argue that Trader Joe’s could not label their products as manuka honey.

Judge Westmore rejected this reasoning and found that Trader Joe’s complied with federal standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The judge found that the FDA considers honey to be a single ingredient food item and allows honey to be labeled “with the name of the plant or blossom if you or the honey producer has information to support the conclusion that the plant or blossom designated on the label is the chief floral source of the honey.”

Because the majority of the honey’s pollen was from the manuka flower, Judge Westmore determined that Trader Joe’s was not in violation of regulations.

In order for the honey to have been “adulterated,” Westmore determined that Trader Joe’s would have had to “purposefully” mixed lesser quality honey with their manuka honey.

The plaintiffs in the Trader Joe’s class action reportedly did not allege that the company adulterated their honey. Instead, their adulteration theory was “premised on the bees visiting different floral sources and returning to the hive, resulting in a lower manuka pollen count, rather than the manufacturer purposefully mixing manuka honey with [non-manuka] honey.”

Judge Westmore determined that, while this theory may be valid, plaintiffs cannot bring fraud claims against bees.

The plaintiffs in the Trader Joe’s class action are represented by C.K. Lee of Lee Litigation Group PLLC, and David Alan Makman of the Law Offices of David A. Makman.

The Trader Joe’s Manuka Honey Class Action Lawsuit is Moore, et al. v. Trader Joe’s, Case No. 4:18-cv-04418, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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