Additional Vanilla Lawsuits Filed

Joining a number of pending putative class actions, a New York plaintiff’s firm has filed three lawsuits alleging that Wegmans Food Markets Inc., Whole Foods Market Group Inc. and Moran Foods LLC mislead consumers by marketing their products as vanilla-flavored while using artificial flavors. As with similar cases previously filed, the complaints target dairy and associated products—ice cream and almondmilk—and allege that the front-of-package representation of the flavor as “vanilla” amounts to violations of New York’s consumer-protection statutes. Arriola v. Wegman Food Markets Inc., No. 19-9227 (S.D.N.Y., filed October 4, 2010); Pinkston v. Whole Foods Mkt. Grp. Inc., No. 19-9362 (S.D.N.Y., filed October 9, 2019); Smith v. Moran Foods LLC, No. 19-9453 (S.D.N.Y., filed October 12, 2019).