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Discount superstore chain Costco is facing a new class action lawsuit for labeling its store brand Kirkland Signature Optifiber supplement as natural even though it contains a synthetic ingredient.
Robert Smythe of New York filed the class action lawsuit against Costco in U.S. District Court in New York on Sept. 11 claiming the company’s advertising and marketing of Optifiber is false, deceptive and misleading.
He is accusing Costco of violating federal and state business laws by holding out the fiber supplement as a natural product when the sole ingredient listed on the package is wheat dextrin – a synthetic form of fiber – the class action lawsuit says.
Smythe claims he relied on the advertising for, and labeling of, the Kirkland Signature Optifiber in making his decision to purchase the supplement, and he believes at least 100 other proposed Class Members did too. As a result, he says, they were all duped into spending money on a product they would not have chosen to buy if they had known it was not a truly natural product.
Kirkland Signature is Costco’s exclusive store brand.
To bolster his claims against Costco, Smythe cited in his class action lawsuit an investigation conducted in May by the National Advertising Division of BBB Programs – formerly the Better Business Bureau – which monitors and evaluates truth and accuracy in national advertising.
The advertising watchdog group issued a report saying, “wheat dextrin, which is created from wheat starch using a multi-stage chemical process … is not a natural ingredient,” the class action lawsuit states.
The National Advertising Division’s investigation came in response to complaints by consumers about another fiber supplement, Benefiber, which also lists wheat dextrin as its sole ingredient. Benefiber’s manufacturer said it disagreed with the findings and would appeal the agency’s opinion.
According to the National Advertising Division, wheat dextrin is created by manipulating wheat with hydrochloric acid and added enzymes through “a tailored, highly controlled method, which selects for biological properties that resist digestion, increases fiber content, enhances solubility, lowers viscosity and adds sweetness.”
The manipulation transforms a fully digestible 0% fiber wheat starch into the non-digestible 85% fiber wheat dextrin.
The agency said the process resulted “a significant alteration of the source ingredient that is inconsistent with a consumer’s reasonable understanding of a product that claims to be 100% natural.”
Smythe’s class action lawsuit argued the National Advertising Division’s findings are in line with guidelines published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Fiber supplements are part of a massive nutritional supplements industry in the U.S. that saw $39 million in sales logged in 2019, the class action lawsuit says. The success of the industry has been driven, in part, by an increasing number of consumers who are concerned about their health and the effects of synthetic ingredients in their diets. Those consumers have shown a willingness to pay a premium for all-natural products.
“Conditions in the industry have created the perfect storm for unscrupulous supplement makers, like Defendant, to take advantage of consumers,” the class action lawsuit says. Customers lack the ability to test products to verify they are as natural as advertised and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “lacks the resources to enforce its laws against most supplement makers.”
For those reasons, consumers are at higher risk of being deceived by misleading claims about the content and benefit of nutritional supplements, Smythe said.
Smythe is asking the court to order Costco to pay $550 per sale of the Optifiber product to himself and the proposed Class Members.
The Costco Optifiber class action lawsuit is only the latest in a string of class action lawsuits to be brought against fiber supplement makers and distributers over the inclusion of wheat dextrin among its ingredients.
A woman filed a class action lawsuit against Benefiber in U.S. District Court in New York in August, saying the company’s “100% Natural” labeling and advertising is misleading because the product is comprised of wheat dextrin. “Reasonable consumers find (the) production processes which Benefiber uses to be inconsistent with how they understand the terms ‘natural’ and ‘100% natural,’” that class action lawsuit says.
In June, a California man filed a federal class action lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturer of Benefiber, for the same reasons – the product is emblazoned with a “100% natural” label, but is comprised of wheat dextrin.
Have you purchased Costco’s Optifiber fiber supplements because you thought they were all natural? Have you purchased any other products because they were said to be all natural, but turned out not to be? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Plaintiff and the proposed Class Members are represented by Jason Sultzer and Joseph Lipari of The Sultzer Law Group PC, and by Michael Reese and George Granade of Reese LLP.
The Costco Optifiber Natural Prebiotic Fiber Supplement Class Action Lawsuit is Robert Smyth v. Costco Wholesale Corporation, Case No. 2:20-cv-04247, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
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105 thoughts onCostco Class Action Lawsuit Says Optifiber Supplement Isn’t Natural
I am a physician and Costco member for many years. I have 2 comments to those in the Kirkland Optifiber lawsuit:
First, the ingredients are actually healthier than any fully natural wheat product you otherwise would have preferred to buy.
Second, Costco’s return policy is 2nd to none!
Frustrated and fed up by false and misleading labels, and now Kirkland’s Optifiber. Why and how are manufacturers allowed to do this?? My hard earned income wasted during my lifetime on “100% natural” products for me and for my family sickens me on various levels.
Please add me to this lawsuit.
Yes. I agree.