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Calbee North America, the makers of Harvest Snaps food products, has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging the company deliberately mislabeled their popular health food snacks.
Lead plaintiff Jutamat Riedel claims that Calbee’s popular snack, Harvest Snaps, are made from a combination of powdered snap peas, rice, and corn oil; however, Calbee markets the product as “simply baked snap peas.” The plaintiff argues that the labeling of the product is “misleading” and “deceptive.”
“By marketing the products as baked ‘green pea crisps,’ [Calbee] took wrongful advantage of consumers increasingly strong preference for foods made entirely of wholesome ingredients,” alleged the plaintiff in her complaint. “Consumers attribute a wide range of benefits to food products made without extensive processing and perceive these food products to be higher quality, healthier, safer to eat and less damaging to the environment.”
According to the class action lawsuit, the plaintiff and other consumers paid a premium for Calbee’s Harvest Snap products, which include varieties of the snack such as lightly salted, wasabi ranch, black pepper, and Caesar.
The plaintiff alleges that Calbee’s packaging on the Harvest Snaps contain various health related claims, including that the snap peas contain “40% less fat,” are “a good source of fiber” and contain “low sodium” compared to regular potato chips.
“Makers of regular potato chips, on the other hand, do not make claims about being healthy,” argues the plaintiff in the Harvest Snaps class action lawsuit.
Calbee is a North Dakota company that develops, markets and sells food products throughout the United States. Harvest Snaps products are sold at major retail locations and online throughout the United States.
“The advertising for the Products was designed to encourage consumers to purchase the Products and reasonably misled the consumers,” alleges the plaintiff in the Harvest Snaps class action. Calbee “owns, manufactures and distributes the Products, and created and/or authorized the unlawful, fraudulent, unfair, misleading and/or deceptive labeling and advertising for the Products,” the plaintiff continues.
The alleged deceptive marketing by Calbee constitutes negligent misrepresentation and violated New York General Business Law and consumer protection statutes nationwide according to the complaint. The plaintiff also alleges that Calbee was unjustly enriched by the misrepresentation.
According to the Harvest Snaps class action lawsuit, the plaintiff seeks to represent a nationwide Class of consumers who purchased Calbee’s Harvest Snaps products from 1999 until the present. She also hopes to represent a subclass of New York consumers who purchased the various Harvest Snaps products.
The plaintiff seeks restitution and disgorgement, compensatory damages, actual and statutory damages, interests, and attorney fees and costs for herself and on behalf of the class.
Riedel, and the proposed classes, are represented by attorneys C.K. Lee and Anne Seelig of Lee Litigation Group in New York City.
The Harvest Snaps Mislabeling Class Action Lawsuit is Reidel v. Calbee North America LLC., Case No. 1:16-CV-00229-JG-MDG in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
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22 thoughts onHarvest Snaps Class Action Lawsuit Claims the Snack is Mislabeled
My comment is that I’d rather eat these than potato chips. Sometimes I sprinkle them on my salads instead or crotons, or salt.
The product is called, “Harvest Snaps” whatever that conjures up in your mind is not my business or the fault of the company. I mean really….if you saw a potato on a bag of potato chips or an Owel with glasses on the bags cover would you automatically think you were actually eating an unpeeled potato or an Owel.
What about cheese doodles or Fruit Loops? I mean to sue a company for false advertising because you not getting a fried string bean with peas inside. Grow up for goodness sake.
It’s greasy junk food like all the other greasy junk food piled in rows next to it. But I must say that if I had a choice between a potato chip, fried bacon skin, pop corn and Harvest Snaps I’d be heart pressed to choose between them.
I was going to show my kids what dry beans looks like. After bite the whole package of Harvest Snaps, there is no beans at all..
Aggravated and disappointed. I have spent alot of money on these snacks. Been eating a bag a day litterally. Got my coworker eating them too. We live in a very rural area and only have dollar general and Piggly wiggly to choose from besides produce there aren’t many healthy choices. Their labels are ? percent misleading
Is anyone getting bad gas and cramps from eating a bag a day?
No
My coworker brought some of these in today. I knew right away these were fake! I need a paycheck for my suffering plz sign me up.
Ha ha ha!
They taste great! Gave me smelly gas, but it’s a small price to pay! ?
Oh wow yesssss!! I ate 2 bags yesterday and am desperately paying the price today! Gas and cramps so bad!
It’s ridiculous law suits like this that cause businesses to no longer be able to afford to provide their products for us to enJOY so I hope the judge is insightful enough to suspect this was probably collaborated by competitors as anyone else suffering from confusion could have just easily contacted this company with a feedback suggestion to add more clarification on the future labels for easily confused consumers
I just bought these snacks and I feel that they are indeed deceptively mislabeled. I wrote the company and told them so, and then a web search brought me here. The package makes it look like there are actual baked pea pods inside, and there is nothing of that sort in the package. The snack on the front of the package looks like a pea pod, with little bulges like peas inside, and the snack has no such bulges. They are just a kind of Cheetos. My complaint is not about nutritional claims, it is about deceptive advertising. I am definitely not an easily confused consumer, but I certainly can be misled, and I feel that I was misled by this company.
I agree. I am so deeply disappointed. I buy/bought these snacks every week! My grocery store had them on sale a few weeks ago at $1.00 per back. Generally, they sell them for 2 for $3.00. My favorite was the chili, lime mango, pepper and lightly salted. I just finished a bag. I enjoyed it so much, I decided to google to see how they are made. I don’t eat crap snack foods. I completely thought I was eating a freeze dried snap pea. I am disgusted and disheartened that I have been eating something I would never deliberately choose to buy and eat!
You are hilarious, the price you mentioned alone should have been a red flag if you thought about it, but from the sound of it you didnt care. the grease on your fingers should have told you, but you didnt care.
the bag clearly separates “Flavored lentil bean Crisps” and “Baked” this is baked green pea crisps, ie baked chips made from processed peas.
understanding they language that you speak, read, and write in may be a good prerequisite to buying a product you want to be whiny about.
the image on the front is a nice design, not anywhere does it say thats what the product looks like. Do you also buy Lucky Charms and wonder where your leprechaun is? This legal suit and the arguments i have heard are absurd and pointless. Please feel free to impress me with any actual intellectual point, thats what i was hoping for when i came here.
How have they mislead the public? How are they mislabeled? The ingredients, calories, etc… are very clearly labelled on the package. This lawsuit is ridiculous and a total waste of due process, court time. It is very clear and no wonder why America is not great anymore. Did people think they were buying a health food vailable in the same isle as the chips? And neglected to read the info readily available on the package? How has anyone been mislead in anyway? (for lack of their own reading skills is not an excuse). We have been buying these for years and we quite enjoy them over chips. At a minimum, these actually have some fiber, iron, calcium, protein and very little sugar in comparison to other snacks on the shelves. Its a treat, like chips are for frig sakes. I hope the judge is wise enough to refuse this claim and cost the plaintiffs to pay all legal costs for such ridiculous actions in this case for their ridiculous claims. Their package it very clearly labelled.
I agree MF this is a ridiculous lawsuit . I just bought a bag and they are very good . The fact that they are lightly salted is good enough for me. And I love the taste just like split pea soup . Yum
I just bought these snacks and I feel that they are indeed deceptively mislabeled. I wrote the company and told them so, and then a web search brought me here. The package makes it look like there are actual baked pea pods inside, and there is nothing of that sort in the package. The snack on the front of the package looks like a pea pod, with little bulges like peas inside, and the snack has no such bulges. They are just a kind of Cheetos. My complaint is not about nutritional claims, it is about deceptive advertising. I am definitely not an easily confused consumer, but I certainly can be misled, and I feel that I was misled by this company.
I totally agree. It’s ridiculous. They even have a label on the packaging now that says “not a low sodium food” when clearly they are indeed a low sodium choice! It is 45mg per serving. That is 3% of the DV. The fda says anything under 140mg and 5%DV is considered low! So this poor company, like many others, has to bow to big industry. We know they are the ones pushing this.
How do you mislabel?
How do you miss label?
The comparative claim is actually permitted. If a consumer was choosing between normal chips and this snack, it does have less fat. That’s permitted. The consumer has to read the fine print. Whats not OK is their presentation as just baked snap peas. Now I love these things but even I was misled at first in thinking they are just baked, salted and flavored peas. I bet most people assume that’s what they are eating!
That’s what I thought! I just ate my last bag :(