Aldi Is Facing a $10 Million Lawsuit for “Deceiving Consumers” With “Misleading” Labels

What does this mean for Aldi customers?

Long-time Allrecipes readers will know that we love Aldi for its great products and low prices—prices it can only maintain because the brand keeps operating costs low through multiple measures. However, there’s one thing Aldi probably didn’t factor in when it promised to save money from the top so it could trickle down to customer savings—and that’s a big class action lawsuit.

Why Is Aldi Being Sued?

On May 30, a customer, Deana Lozano, filed a lawsuit against the budget-friendly grocery store, claiming that Aldi is “misleading” its customers through “misbranding.” The suit alleges that Aldi’s Millville Fruit & Grain Bars are mislabeled and therefore misleading. Why? Because, according to the lawsuit, the package states the bars are, "'Naturally Flavored' and contain 'No Artificial Flavors'…[and] these natural flavoring claims are false.”

Despite prominently displaying the "No Artificial Flavors" disclaimer, the bars contain malic acid, which, according to the suit, is “manufactured in petrochemical plants from benzene or butane—components of gasoline and lighter fluid, respectively—through a series of chemical reactions.”

Malic acid is found naturally occurring in certain fruits, but it’s also manufactured as an additive and used to boost tartness in foods, which is what the lawsuit alleges Aldi has done with these bars. As you can imagine, a lot of fruit-flavored foods use malic acid—including the Nutri-Grain bar, which is essentially the name-brand version of the Millville product.

However, the problem (according to the plaintiff) lies in the fact that Aldi is using malic acid “to create a sweet and tart flavor but pretends otherwise, conflating natural and artificial flavorings, misbranding the products, and deceiving consumers.”

Lozano is suing Aldi on behalf of all California Aldi customers. The lawsuit brings seven claims against Aldi, including an alleged violation of the California Business & Professions Code for “unlawful and fraudulent conduct.” The class action lawsuit seeks $9,999,000, according toNewsweek, which—in the case that Aldi loses the suit—could go back into California consumers' pockets, as is the case with most class action settlements.

This is just one of many lawsuits filed against a big-name company for “misbranding” in the past year—in January, a New York customer filed a lawsuit against Simply Orange for its own misleading “all-natural” label. The court system can take time, though, and seeing as this suit was just filed and Lozano is demanding a jury trial, it could be a while before we know the ruling. Only time will tell if any money comes out of the suit and back into Aldi customers' wallets.