Class Action Lawsuit alleges Deceit in Marketing of Kind Bar Juice

Snack-maker Kind LLC recently was hit with a Class Action lawsuit alleging the business misleads consumers regarding the actual ingredients in its popular products. Lead plaintiff Cassandra Song contends in her Class Action lawsuit that the label on various forms of Kind fruit bars misleads consumers that they’re actually comprised of only natural fruit pieces.

Further Reading indicates that the company has merely altered the wording of the product label in order to “deceive” consumers into believing the product is all-natural when it’s not. In addition, the company fails to list the main ingredients that comprise Kind Bar because it claims it does not want to “upset” consumers and their families.

Kind Bar Lawsuit

The question on everyone’s mind right now is, “How do you prove the snack-bar ingredients are deceptive?” Answer: Easy! Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) conducted an investigation into the matter.

In November 2021, the agency sent letters to Kind requesting more information regarding ingredient lists for Kind Bars, including but not limited to, the ingredient labels of Kind Yellow Juice, Kind Green Tea, Kind Orange Juice, Kind Pineapple Juice, and Kind Strawberry Juice. CPSC received answers from Kind regarding all four requests and has since recommended against Kind distributing misleading statements regarding the contents of its fruit-based beverages.

Essentially, according to CPSC, Kind fails to provide consumers with clear and truthful ingredient lists for its drinks and snacks.

This is especially troubling, because the beverage industry is largely unregulated compared to food. In essence, the nutritional content of many fruit-based beverages are subject to considerable interpretation and even dispute by individual manufacturers.

For example, the claim that Kind bars are low in sugar is currently being contested by the juice and drink industry. On the other hand, bottled water is heavily regulated regarding sugar content, sodium level, and calorie content.

In its evaluation of Kind’s claims regarding its fruit bars class action lawsuit, CPSC found that Kind’s marketing claimed that its products were low in calories and yet the product literature contained language that indicated that each bar had a significant amount of calories per serving.

In addition, Kind failed to disclose that there was in fact an ingredient in Kind Puree that made the product significantly more calorie-lacking than other similar products.

This ingredient was a mixture of tomatoes and sugar. CPSC additionally found that Kind failed to appropriately warn consumers of this potential problem and that it failed to include the source of the tomatoes in the tomato paste.

Another example of Kind’s deceptive advertising can be found in terms of the marketing of its orange juice and strawberry puree drinks.

On its websites and in print ads, Kind refers consumers to the “pomegranate smoothies recipe” as an example of one of their fruit bars. In truth, the only thing mentioned on either site is the “pomegranate smoothie recipe” and that ingredient is completely unrelated to the oranges or strawberries that make up the product.

This example of deceptive advertising can be seen as an extension of Kind’s prior fraudulent claims regarding its fruit bars; that the product had a low calorie content while it did not.

The class action lawsuit against Kind requires that the company accurately and adequately disclose all of its ingredients.

Specifically, the class action lawsuit alleges that Kind failed to disclose that among its ingredients were a variety of artificial ingredients that could undermine the effectiveness of Kind’s products and affect the ability of consumers to process those products in their bodies.

This language is necessary because, if the food or beverage has deceptive or incomplete ingredients list, this representation is likely to have adverse consequences for the company. It is important that Kind immediately change all of its advertising and packaging so that it accurately and adequately discloses all of its ingredients.