A recent California court ruling is a reminder that food companies must be cognitive of labelling laws in the country of sale. In the US, this includes state-specific law.
This case related to a liquorice sweet labelled as “free from …. artificial colours and flavours”. It included the declared ingredient malic acid. At a US federal level (FDA) this is legal, because – although the form of DL-malic acid used was synthetic - malic acid is classified as a favour enhancer not a flavour.
Under California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA), however, claims of consumer fraud are judged by the “reasonable consumer standard,” i.e., whether a hypothetical reasonable consumer would likely be deceived by the defendant’s conduct. The California court found that, in this case, the company had acted fraudulently in deceiving the consumer.
You can read the full judgement here
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