M&M’s Ice Cream Bars Don’t Contain Enough Vanilla, Class Action Says

Mars Inc. has been hit with a class action lawsuit from a consumer who claims that the company is committing “food fraud” by stating that their M&M’s ice cream bars contain vanilla when they do not.

The plaintiff, Sherise Richardson, states that the front and back label of M&M’s ice cream bars claim that they contain “vanilla” and “vanilla reduced fat ice cream.”

The M&M’s class action lawsuit argues that company uses a synthetic version of real vanilla called vanillin as a main flavor component.

“Though ‘food fraud’ has no agreed-upon definition, its typologies encompass an ever-expanding, often overlapping range of techniques with one common goal: giving consumers less than what they bargained for,” the M&M’s ice cream class action lawsuit claims.

The plaintiff alleges that only one-two percent of vanillin is extracted from the vanilla plant and that means that most of vanillin does not have any connection to the vanilla bean.

In addition, the labeling of vanilla is controlled by the standards for vanilla ingredients, not by general flavor regulations, contend the plaintiff.

The Mars class action lawsuit states that if a product contains non-vanilla vanillin, the package has to affirm that vanillin is present and identify it as an artificial flavor.

“This prevents consumers from being misled by products which may taste similar to real vanilla and but for consumer protection requirements, would be sold at the price of real vanilla,” the M&M’s class action argues.

The Mars class action lawsuit also alleges that executives in the flavor industry “openly boast” of their strategy to provide customers less vanilla for the same price.

The plaintiff states that the use of the terms “vanilla” and “vanilla reduced fat ice cream” do not adequately inform their consumers that the foods actually contain “non-vanilla flavors.”

The M&M’s ice cream class action lawsuit also argues that the ingredient list shows that the reduced vanilla ice cream part of the product is made with “natural flavors.” This means that the flavoring is not just from vanilla, the non-vanilla flavor contains vanillin, and the use of non-vanilla flavors are using less real vanilla.

“Had the Products flavoring derived exclusively from vanilla, the ingredient list would declare the common or usual names of one or more of the exclusively vanilla ingredients, viz, Vanilla Extract, Concentrated Vanilla Extract, Vanilla Flavoring and Concentrated Vanilla Flavoring, and not declare any other flavor ingredient,” the plaintiff claims.

The M&M’s class action states that if Mars wanted to adequately tell consumers that their product contained non-vanilla flavors, it could have been described as “vanilla bean flavored ice cream.”

In addition, the Mars class action lawsuit states that their ice cream also contains extracts of annatto for coloring purposes, which makes the consumer less likely to question the amount and type of vanilla in the product and expect the product to contain more vanilla than it actually does.

“Vanilla ice cream modified by an express nutrient content claim still requires that the flavor is derived exclusively from the characterizing flavor, vanilla, because vanilla is a required ingredient for adherence to the standardized food,” the plaintiff states.

Have you purchased M&M’s Vanilla Ice Cream Bars? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiff is is represented by Spencer Sheehan of Sheehan & Associates PC and Michael R. Reese of Reese LLP.

The M&M’s Ice Cream Bars Class Action Lawsuit is Sherise Richardson, et al. v. Mars Incorporated, Case No. 7:19-cv-10860, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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