Nature’s Recipe Class Action Challenges ‘Natural’ Pet Food Claims

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

The maker of Nature’s Recipe pet food has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it misrepresents some of its products as “all natural” when they actually contain non-natural, artificial and/or synthetic ingredients.

Plaintiff Nancy van Mourik filed the Nature’s Recipe class action lawsuit earlier this month against Big Heart Pet Brands Inc., which manufactures, labels, advertises, distributes and sells Nature’s Recipe pet food products.

However, Nature’s Recipe products allegedly contain non-natural ingredients such as sodium tripolyphosphate, citric acid, lactic acid, and synthetic vitamins and minerals.

Van Mourik alleges she purchased Nature’s Recipe Adult Healthy Weight dog food from a PetSmart store in Magnolia, Texas earlier this year. She paid a premium price for the product because she relied on the label’s statement that the product was “All Natural Dog Food,” the Nature’s Recipe class action lawsuit alleges.

According to the Nature’s Recipe class action lawsuit, Big Heart knew or should have known that its products contain artificial ingredients but chose to mislead consumers by advertising and labeling the pet food products as “natural.”

Van Mourik accuses the company of falsely and deceptively labeling and advertising Nature’s Recipe products as “All Natural,” “All Natural Dog Food” and/or “All Natural Cat Food.” She says she and the putative Class Members she seeks to represent relied on the false and misleading “natural” representations when they purchased Nature’s Recipe pet food products.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not issued an official definition of the terms “natural” or “all natural,” the Nature’s Recipe class action lawsuit admits.

“However, the agency has established a policy defining the outer boundaries of the term ‘natural’ by clarifying that it ‘has not objected to the use of the term if a food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic ingredients,” van Mourik states in the Nature’s Recipe class action lawsuit.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture explains that a “natural” product is one that does not contain any artificial ingredients or added colors and is minimally processed, according to the Nature’s Recipe class action lawsuit.

The Nature’s Recipe class action lawsuit claims van Mourik would not have purchased the products, or she would have paid less for them, if she had known that the “natural” representations on the Nature’s Recipe products were false and misleading.

She has filed the Nature’s Recipe class action lawsuit on behalf of herself and a proposed Class of U.S. consumers who purchased the allegedly deceptively labeled “natural” pet food products during the applicable statute of limitations period. She also seeks to represent a California subclass.

The Nature’s Recipe class action lawsuit asserts claims for violations of California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act, Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, common law fraud, intentional misrepresentation and unjust enrichment.

Van Mourik is represented by Barbara A. Rohr and Benjamin Heikali of Faruqi & Faruqi LLP and Michael R. Reese and George V. Granade of Reese LLP.

The Nature’s Recipe Natural Pet Food Class Action Lawsuit is Nancy van Mourik v. Big Heart Pet Brands Inc., Case No. 4:17-cv-03889-KAW, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.