Whitewave’s Silk and Horizon Products

July 2014: The appeal was voluntarily dismissed pursuant to an agreement between the parties, the terms of which have not been disclosed.

January 2014: Plaintiffs filed a Notice of Appeal regarding the December 2013 dismissal.

December 2013: A federal judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed against Whitewave Foods Company alleging that the company misbrands both Silk and Horizon products.

Specifically, the complaint, which was filed in April 2013, alleges that the companies misbrand products – including Silk Vanilla Soymilk, Silk Pure Almond All Natural Original Almond Milk, Silk Pure Coconut Original Coconut Milk, Organic Whole Vanilla Yogurt, Tuberz yogurt tubes, and Horizon Organic Vanilla Lowfat Milk – in three ways:

• By mislabeling products as containing “evaporated cane juice” when, according to the complaint, they actually contain “sugar” or “dried cane syrup;”
• By mislabeling Silk products as “milk” when, according to the complaint, the products are plant-based and do not come from lactating cows;
• By mislabeling Horizon products as yogurt because they contain “evaporated cane juice,” which they claim is the same thing as sugar.

The judge dismissed the entire complaint determining, among other things, that “it is simply implausible that a reasonable consumer would mistake a product like soymilk or almond milk with dairy milk from a cow.” The judge dismissed the other mislabeling claims because the companies had agreed to settle a similar class-action lawsuit in Florida, which was granted final approval. For more information about the Florida settlement, click here. (Ang et al v. Whitewave Foods Company, Dean Foods Company, WWF Operating Company, and Horizon Organic Dairy LLC, Case No. 13-cv-1953, N. D. CA.).

For more information about class-action lawsuits filed against Whitewave Foods Company and TINA.org’s coverage of the company, click here.