Whole Foods Sued For Having Six Times More Sugar In Yogurt Than Label Claims
Credit: kellyhogaboom
August 12, 2014

I wonder how many of the other items in Whole Foods are mislabeled. After all, the owner is a wingnut!

Yesterday, the lawyers who made headlines for suing Subway over the length of its so-called footlong sandwiches filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court claiming that Whole Foods is selling Greek yogurt with nearly six times the sugar listed on the label.

"I find it hard to believe they don't know what's in their yogurt," said lawyer Joseph Osefchen, of the Center City and Marlton, N.J., firm DeNittis Osefchen. "It's a store brand. Whole Foods makes it, advertises it and makes the label."

The lawsuit alleges that the Texas-based supermarket chain is misleading consumers by listing its 365 Everyday Value Plain Greek Yogurt as having only 2 grams of sugar. Last month, Consumer Reports analyzed six samples of the yogurt and found that the containers had 11.4 grams of sugar, on average.

"Basically, they're saying, 'Our product has half as much sugar as our lowest competitor,' " Osefchen said. "If you're going to sell yourself as the health-food grocery store, you ought to be right."

Osefchen's firm filed the suit in Philadelphia on behalf of city residents Carmine Clemente and Samantha Kilgallen. The lawyers are seeking class-action status that would cover all Pennsylvanians who bought the yogurt. They filed a similar lawsuit in New Jersey on Friday on behalf of Whole Foods consumers there.

A Whole Foods spokeswoman said yesterday that the company doesn't comment on pending litigation, but issued a statement: "We strive to only provide the highest quality products with accurate product labeling under our 365 Everyday Value line. This product was tested by a reputable third-party lab using FDA-approved testing methodology to determine the labeling. We recognize that Consumer Reports is a trusted publication and are looking into why their test results differ from ours."

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