Trader Joe’s Class Action Says Manuka Honey Isn’t 100% Pure

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Trader Joe’s Company has been hit with a class action lawsuit accusing the grocery chain of deceptively marketing and advertising its manuka honey product as being 100 percent manuka honey when it really only contains about 60 percent manuka honey.

Manuka honey is a type of honey made by bees that pollinate flowers of the manuka bush, which is indigenous to New Zealand.

“Research by an international network of laboratories has shown that New Zealand’s manuka honeys are one of the two major medicinal honeys that have exhibited high antibacterial potency relative to other honeys,” the Trader Joe’s class action lawsuit says. “Its efficacy as dressing for wounds, burns, skin ulcers and in reducing inflammation has been well documented.”

These findings have boosted the popularity of manuka honey, leading to the growth of New Zealand apiaries that produce high amounts of manuka honey.

However, the supply of natural manuka honey that has high antibacterial properties is limited, the Trader Joe’s class action lawsuit says.

A bottle of manuka honey can cost 10 times the price of non-manuka honey, according to the Trader Joe’s class action lawsuit.

Trader Joe’s reportedly sells manuka honey that lists manuka honey as the only ingredient in the product. Some products include a “100% Manuka Honey” statement on the front label.

Plaintiffs Lynn Moore, Shanque King and Jeffrey Akwei filed the Trader Joe’s class action lawsuit last week in California federal court, claiming that independent testing confirmed that the Trader Joe’s manuka honey contains only between 57.3 percent to 62.6 percent manuka honey.

The plaintiffs each claim that they relied on the either the “100% New Zealand Manuka Honey” description on the label and/or the ingredients list that named manuka as the only ingredient.

According to the manuka honey class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs would not have purchased the Trader Joe’s manuka honey product, or would not have paid as much for it, if they had known the product did not contain as much manuka honey as indicated on the package label.

As a result of its allegedly false, misleading and deceptive sale and marketing of the manuka honey product, Trader Joe’s has “reaped enormous profits,” the manuka honey class action lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs filed the Trader Joe’s class action lawsuit on behalf of themselves and a proposed Class of consumers in the United States who purchased Trader Joe’s manuka honey products during the applicable statute of limitations period.

If the court does not grant certification of the nationwide Class, Akwei seeks to represent a New York Class, Moore seeks to represent a California Class, and King seeks to represent a North Carolina Class.

The Trader Joe’s honey class action lawsuit asserts violations of consumer protection statutes in all 50 states. The plaintiffs seek injunctive relief, actual damages, restitution and/or disgorgement of profits, statutory damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, and other relief the court deems proper.

The plaintiffs are represented by C.K. Lee of Lee Litigation Group PLLC and David Makman of Law Offices of David A. Makman.

The Trader Joe’s Manuka Honey Class Action Lawsuit is Lynn Moore, et al. v. Trader Joe’s Company, Case No. 4:18-cv-04418-KAW, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Oakland Division.

UPDATE: On June 24, 2019, Trader Joe’s successfully beat a class action lawsuit alleging its manuka honey was not as pure as the grocer claimed.