Flaxmilk Class Action Lawsuit Targets ‘All Natural’ Claims

Food products maker Flax USA Inc. has been hit with a class action lawsuit accusing the company of falsely labeling its “Flaxmilk” products as “all natural,” even though they allegedly contain processed, artificial or synthetic ingredients.

Flax USA produces the trademarked “Flaxmilk,” a dairy substitute beverage made with flaxseeds. Plaintiff Garo Madenlian filed the class action lawsuit, alleging that Flaxmilk contains a variety of artificial or synthetic ingredients despite displaying a prominent “all natural” label on its packaging.

“Defendants’ omissions of the material fact that the products include ingredients that are not ‘all natural,’ but instead contain artificial, synthetic or extensively processed ingredients, are likely to deceive reasonable consumers,” the Flaxmilk class action lawsuit says.

According to the class action lawsuit, Madenlian purchased several Flaxmilk products under the belief that the products were actually all natural before finding out that the products contain ingredients such as tricalcium phosphate, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D2, vitamin B12 and xanthan gum. “The size and placement of ingredients, which appear in smaller print and on the side of each of the Flax USA Products’ packaging, are in stark contrast to the conspicuous ‘all natural’ representations, which appear in larger print and in more prominent locations on the packaging,” Madenlian says.

Madenlian argues that Flax USA fails to meet the guidelines set by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the use of the word “natural” on packaging. According to his class action lawsuit, the FDA’s guidelines may preclude using the term “natural” on a product label even when a preservative or coloring is derived from natural sources.

Reasonable consumers “do not have the specialized knowledge necessary to identify ingredients in Flax USA Products as being inconsistent with the ‘All Natural’ claims,” Madenlian argues in his class action lawsuit. He claims that he relied on the false and misleading labeling claims when making the decision to purchase the Flaxmilk products. However, because the labels were misbranded, he paid a premium but did not receive the “all natural” product he thought he was getting.

Madenlian claims that Flax USA knows that consumers are willing to pay a premium for natural products and that the company intended to deceive consumers by including the “All Natural” label even though its products contain synthetic, artificial or processed ingredients.

By filing the class action lawsuit, Madenlian seeks an injunction preventing Flax USA from using the “all natural” label on its products, refunds on behalf of the class and attorneys’ fees. He has accused Flax USA of violating California’s Unfair Competition Law, Sherman Law, False Advertising Law and Consumers Legal Remedies Act as a result of its unfair, deceptive, untrue or misleading advertising.

Madenlian is represented by Chant Yedelian of Chant & Co.

The Flaxmilk Mislabeling Class Action Lawsuit is Garo Madenlian v. Flax USA Inc., Case No. 8:13-cv-01748, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.