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.
GT’s Organic Raw Kombucha and Synergy drinks are advertised as “wonder drinks that possess amazing health benefits,” but there is no research to support their health claims, says a class action lawsuit filed in California. Not only that, the lawsuit says, but consumers are unaware that serious side effects and occasional deaths have been associated with drinking kombucha tea.
Kombucha tea has been popular in the East for centuries as an alleged elixir that promotes health and wellness, but has only recently become popular with U.S. consumers. Kombucha tea is made by adding a culture of live bacteria and yeast to black or green tea and fermenting it. The result is very high levels of acid, which have been linked to serious health complications.
According to the GT Organic Raw Kombucha and Synergy class action lawsuit, “reports have linked kombucha with serious health complications, including liver damage, toxicity and metabolic acidosis, which is an abnormal increase of acid levels in body fluids. Other problems include allergic reaction and nausea.” The lawsuit also points out a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that inked kombucha to the death of an Iowa woman the illness of another woman who was revived after her heart stopped. “Both women experienced severe metabolic acidosis because of excessive acid buildup in bodily fluids that health officials thought may have been related to their daily consumption of kombucha.”
The kombucha class action lawsuit is brought against Millennium Products, Inc., which started bottling and selling kombucha tea in 1995, around the same time that the first reports of serious harm associated with consumption of kombucha surfaced. Millennium advertises its kombucha drinks as supporting digestion, metabolism, immune system, liver function, anti-aging and more. These health claims, the lawsuit says, have never been proven with a clinical trial on humans.
The class action lawsuit is seeking damages for a nationwide class of consumers who have purchased GT’s Organic Raw Kombucha or Synergy drinks. A copy of the GT Kombucha Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.
Updated October 8th, 2010
All class action and lawsuit news updates are listed in the Lawsuit News section of Top Class Actions
Top Class Actions Legal Statement
One thought on Kombucha Tea Class Action Lawsuit
Hmm… anytime someone has something negative to say about Kombucha, they almost 99% of the time reference that one “single” claim from the 1995 Iowa case. In which, both females had “other health issues”.
This is a weak case. I’ve drank it many times… as they say, nothing is good if you abuse it, everything in moderation.