Hu class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Plaintiff Sonya Levy has filed a class action lawsuit against Hu Products LLC, Hu Master Holdings LLC, and Mondelez Global LLC.
- Why: The defendants allegedly failed to disclose that their dark chocolate product contains lead, which can cause significant health problems.
- Where: The dark chocolate lawsuit was filed in New York federal court.
Hu’s Organic Simple Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa chocolate bars contain unsafe levels of lead, a chemical that is extremely harmful when consumed, according to a recent class action lawsuit.
When lead builds up in the body over time, it can cause significant health problems, the dark chocolate class action lawsuit says. Young children are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning, which can adversely affect their mental and physical development.
Consumer Reports Magazine and independent testing have reportedly discovered many chocolate products contain high levels of lead, including Hu’s dark chocolate products.
Dark chocolate lawsuit says defendants charge premium for products that are purportedly made with ‘clean’ ingredients
Plaintiff Sonya Levy says she frequently purchased Hu dark chocolate products and believed that they were safe for consumption.
The Hu class action lawsuit alleges the company’s success as a “health and wellness” snack brand is founded in part on its representations that its products are “organic,” “clean,” “better-for-you,” and made with “simple, close to nature ingredients.”
Levy claims that the defendants knew that consumers would pay a premium for healthier products with “natural” ingredients.
Had Levy known that the chocolate bars contained lead, she would not have purchased them or would have paid less for them, according to the dark chocolate lawsuit.
“Consumers lack the meaningful ability to test or independently verify whether a product contains lead or other unsafe and unhealthy substances, especially at the point of purchase,” the dark chocolate lawsuit says.
Therefore, consumers must rely on companies to truthfully disclose the ingredients.
Hu class action says defendants failed to disclose that chocolate contains lead
Levy alleges Hu Products LLC, Hu Master Holdings LLC, and Mondelez Global LLC knew that their chocolate products contained lead but failed to disclose this fact to consumers.
She notes that the defendants test the products for quality control purposes and that they receive certifications from suppliers that would indicate the presence of lead in the products. The dark chocolate lawsuit alleges the defendants would have had “exclusive knowledge of the lead levels” that consumers could not have known about without conducting independent testing.
She filed the Hu class action lawsuit on behalf of herself and other consumers who purchased the Hu dark chocolate products in the United States.
This dark chocolate lawsuit is just one of several cases filed in the wake of the Consumer Reports findings that many dark chocolate products contain toxic heavy metals such as lead and cadmium.
Have you purchased Hu chocolate products? Tell us what you think of the dark chocolate lawsuit in the comments!
Levy is represented by Max S. Roberts, L. Timothy Fisher, and Sean L. Litteral of Bursor & Fisher PA, Kevin Laukaitis of Laukaitis Law Firm LLC, and David S. Almeida of Almeida Law Group LLC.
The Hu dark chocolate lawsuit is Sonya F. Levy v. Hu Products LLC, et al., Case No. 1:23-cv-01381, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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125 thoughts onHu class action claims dark chocolate products contain lead
We have been purchasing the Hu Dark chocolate bars and baking gems for years. We have 3 bars now that we refuse to eat.
We eat these almost every day, how am I just now hearing about this?? I have a lot of mysterious health issues too. How do I get added to the list?
I contacted the company because three bars I recently purchased tasted moldy. I threw them out. Hu is sending me coupons for new bars.
That isn’t the only thing in their packages. My partner bought me some bars and most of them had 1-2 larvae worms in the packaging! Wish I was kidding. Fortunately they were in the outer paper wrapper not the inner. In 2 cases the larvae were still alive and came squirming out. I’m so grossed out I thew the rest away. If they’re so careless in their QA, should be no surprise there’s heavy metals in there. Told my partner I didn’t want any more of them.
This is sad to learn.
I have been “addicted” to Hu chocolate. Whenever I find some on sale I buy them by the dozen. I even wrote to their customer service once, which is really silly to say, to ask if it was ok to eat one bar a day. They told me to check with my doctor. This is my only treat, I have a very healthy vegetarian/pescatarian diet I stick to.
So now I am concerned. Because if there is lead in Hu chocolate I must have eaten hundreds of bars in the past 4 years so there is lots of lead in me. I should have all receipts as I use an app to store receipt. If I can still be added to the lawsuit let me know.
Add me to this list. Been eating Hu chocolate for years but haven’t touched the ones I still have in the cupboard since I heard about this. I too have developed health problems that I don’t want to get worse because of this nonsense. I don’t understand why these companies willingly poison their customers instead of just doing the right thing and remove these poisons from their products.
I’ve been buying and eating Hu dark chocolate for years. Still have some in the cupboard that I have avoided once i heard about the cadmium and lead because I have developed health issues over the past several years that I did not want to get worse. Shame on these people for not just doing the right thing and reducing/removing toxic materials that they know are contained in their products
I’ve been buying and eating Hu dark chocolate for years. Still have some in the cupboard that I have avoided once i heard about the cadmium and lead because I have developed health issues over the past several years that I did not want to get worse. Shame on these people for not just doing the right thing and reducing/removing toxic materials that they know are contained in their products
Add me
8, too, have been buying Hu 70% chocolate bars and Hu in other flavors. I have 3 autoimmune dieases and then to read this is quite disturbing and alarming. I want to know why outer country is poisoning us! I have read thousands of pages showing thus ro be true. And now we can’t even trust the “healthy” stuff because they are sneaking in bad chemicals and calling it natural and other fake names. I’m angry! How can we stop this?