Protein Content Exaggerated in BioHealth Protein Powders, Claims Plaintiff

Purchasers of BioHealth protein powder may not be getting all the protein they were promised, according to a recent false advertising class action lawsuit.

Plaintiff Bernardo Deleon is taking on the individuals and companies behind BioHealth Precision, Core Formulations and Rogue Nutrition protein supplement powders.

He accuses these defendants of a practice known as “protein spiking,” the practice of adding certain non-protein ingredients like amino acids to the product. Protein spiking leads to artificially and falsely inflated test results when the product goes through product testing, Deleon claims.

Because of the alleged protein spiking, the actual amounts of protein in BioHealth protein powder is “grossly overstated” on the products’ labeling, Deleon claims.

He alleges the defendants overstate not just the quantity of protein in their products but also the quality, assuring consumers that “Core Formulations uses only the purest, high quality proteins available. Our proteins are sourced from the highest quality cows and made from fresh sweet dairy whey, are 100% gluten free and produced without GMOs.”

Contributing to the alleged false advertising are the defendants’ specific assurances, printed all over some of the products’ labels, that they do not include any protein spiking.

Deleon includes pictures of a Core 8 label that show it includes claims like “NO PROTEIN SPIKING!! NO useless AMINO spikes like ‘Amino Acid Complex’ or ‘Taurine’. ONLY 100% WHEY PROTEIN.”

Putting BioHealth Protein Claims to the Test

Yet according to third-party test results, the defendants’ protein powders have significantly less protein than their labeling says they should. Deleon says test results fo these products varied widely from their stated protein levels, with some products even testing at little more than one-tenth the levels of protein promised on their labeling.

The amount of protein in a protein powder is a factor that would be important to a consumer in deciding whether to purchase such a product, Deleon says. He says he relied on the defendants’ representations as to the products’ protein content when he made his own purchase of BioHealth products.

Had he known the products’ actual protein content was so far off the mark, Deleon says, he would not have purchased them or would not have paid as much for them.

Defendants in Deleon’s BioHealth protein powder class action lawsuit include a number of individuals and businesses that allegedly produce the defendants’ products at issue while doing business as Core Formulations and BioHealth Nutrition.

These products include but are not limited to protein powders sold under the brand names Core Formulations  (or CF) Core 8, IsoCore, and APEX, BioHealth Precisions and ISO, and Rogue Nutrition – Rogue Whey.

Deleon says these defendants have purposely avoided doing business under their proper names and failed to register as proper business entitites, in order to conceal their identities.

Deleon seeks to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of all persons in California who purchased one or more of the products at issue between Feb. 1, 2012 and the present.

This BioHealth Protein Powder False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Bernardo Deleon v. Michael Santana, et al., Case No. BC611621 in the Superior Court for Los Angeles County, California.