Chobani And Fage Go To Court Over Sugar-Content Claims

By Sam Lewis

Two men from New York are suing two of the country’s largest makers of Greek yogurt over claims of misleading advertising

Barry Stoltz and Allan Chang are taking Chobani and Fage to court in two separate class action lawsuits, according to the New York Post. The duo is asserting that the companies deceitfully present products by suppressing the amount of sugar contained in yogurt and also calling it “Greek.” The complaint reads, “Defendants purposefully misrepresented and continue to misrepresent to consumers that their products contain ‘evaporated cane juice’ even though ‘evaporated cane juice’ is not ‘juice’ at all – it is nothing more than sugar dressed up to sound like a healthier sweetener.”

The lawsuit says that the top of the packaging reads “0%” or “2%” without revealing context. This leads consumers to assign any significance they want, such as calories, carbohydrates, and sugar. The nutrition panels of both products list the amount of sugar, in grams, contained within a serving. According to the Post, a comparable case was thrown out last month in California due to lack of proof that shows consumers were fooled by labeling.

The suit is also charging that both companies market yogurt as health foods, but some flavored varieties of yogurt contain the same amount of sugar as some desserts. The lawsuit gives the example of a Nestle Fudge bar — containing 15 grams of sugar — against Chobani’s Blackberry Greek Yogurt, also containing 15 grams of sugar.

The plaintiffs are also arguing that by calling Chobani and Fage’s products Greek Yogurt confuses consumers as both companies make these products with in the U.S. “Much like English muffins and French fries, our fans understand Greek yogurt to be a product description about how we authentically make our yogurt and not about where we make our yogurt in upstate New York and Idaho,” Chobani tells the Post.

At the same time, the USDA has chosen Chobani to receive a one-month contract to provide yogurt to public schools in Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Idaho, Mississippi, and New York. The contract will become effective in August. Further, in 2013, Greek yogurt was recommended as a protein substitute to students in Arizona, Idaho, New York, and Tennessee. In the three months the product was offered, school kids consumed nearly $300,000 worth of yogurt.