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Breyers to Pay $8.8-mil Over Misleading Natural Vanilla Labeling

Connoisseurs of vanilla ice cream generally prefer products made from real vanilla beans that are in the product evidenced by with those little black specs. And that is exactly what purchasers of Breyer’s Natural Vanilla ice cream should expect to get.

You can see the little black specs depicted in the scoop of ice cream right on the front of their packages along with a picture of vanilla beans and their flowers.

Breyer's Vanilla

We wrote about Breyers Natural Vanilla back in 2016 concerning a separate issue when the ingredients statement explicitly listed “vanilla beans.” Now, that is no longer stated. (See original story.)

So recently some crafty consumer lawyers decided to have the product chemically analyzed to see if it had real or artificial vanilla or both.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Laboratory analysis, specifically by the Center for Advanced Food Technology at Rutgers University, demonstrated that Breyers Natural Vanilla Ice Cream contains vanilla flavor from non-vanilla plant sources.

The testing of Breyers Natural Vanilla Ice Cream did not detect p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, vanillic acid or p-hydroxybenzoic acid, which means the Breyers Natural Vanilla Ice Cream has, at most, a small amount of real vanilla…

So they sued Unilever in June (see complaint) and believe it or not, they already announced a tentative settlement.

Therefore, if you bought any size container of Breyer’s Natural Vanilla ice cream from April 21, 2016 through August 14, 2024, you are entitled to get one dollar back for each one. If you have proofs of purchase, you can claim as many as you bought. Otherwise, the maximum claim is for eight cartons and you can get back $8. File a claim here.

The company is also being required to reformulate the product and not include vanilla flavor derived from non-vanilla plant sources.

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5 thoughts on “Breyers to Pay $8.8-mil Over Misleading Natural Vanilla Labeling”

  1. I’m always one to caution against frivolous lawsuits, but this looks like the system at work. I can’t believe (actually yes I can) that Breyers was settling ice cream of “Natural Vanilla” with little to no vanilla in it. To add the specs is just insult to injury. That’s a clear an conscious decision to manipulate customers into believing they used actual vanilla in their ice cream.`

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  2. Disappointed though not surprised if the allegation is true. Not much is explained in the documents and the settlement amount is trivial to Unilever. It remains to be seen whether the packaging will change, perhaps some brand value damage, etc. Unilever is often touted as being a leader with respect to ESG principles.
    I have found their so-called Natural line (vanilla, strawberry) enjoyable, not too rich, reasonably priced. Now I wonder what those little specks are!

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  3. Just think. Somewhere at Unilever, an exec came up with the brilliant idea of foregoing vanilla in Breyer’s Natural Vanilla ice cream and then everyone else got on board with the idea.

    The only ice cream I trust is Turkey Hill Simply Natural – everything on the ingredient list is recognizable and appropriate. Back in the 90s, Breyers had a commercial where they promoted the fact that they only used easily recognizable ingredients in their ice cream and now they’ve come to this.

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  4. I can’t eat processed food, and was so happy to see Breyer’s had kept at least vanilla all natural.
    Imagine my surprise (and sorrow) when my body reacted negatively to it…

    Reply