Class Action Suit: Major ‘Organic’ Baby Formula Isn’t Organic
Just how desperate are Big Food companies to get in on the burgeoning organic market? It seems that they are desperate enough to lie about their ingredients – even in baby formula.
Plaintiffs are seeking over $5 million in damages from the well-known baby formula maker, Abbot Laboratories (who makes Similac) for labeling one of their formulas as organic when it is anything but organic.
Sara Margentette, Matthew O’Neil Nighswander, and Ellen Steinlien filed the suit on May 15 in U.S. District Court in New York, claiming that Abbot’s Similac Advance Organic contains ingredients that are prohibited from being in ‘organic’ food. The plaintiffs are wondering how the product was certified, and why 26 of the 49 ingredients – more than half – are not supposed to be in organic food.
One of the claims within the court documents states that the Similac brand contains ingredients that are either:
“. . . irradiated substances, synthetic compounds, or produced from hazardous substances.”
The plaintiffs also claim that Abbot is marketing the product with an organic label in order to get consumers to purchase it – obviously with the aim of increasing their profits.
“As a result of its false and misleading labeling, Abbott was able to sell its ‘Organic’ Infant Formula to hundreds of thousands of consumers throughout the United States and to realize sizeable profits,” the lawsuit said.
They claim ‘false and misleading’ labeling by Abbott laboratories as well.
The news comes as we reported on how global health care company Abbott will soon sell a GMO-free version of its Similac Advance baby formula at Target – the very first mainstream baby formula that will not contain genetically altered ingredients. This is great news in that it’s a clear sign that we are successfully raising GMO-awareness to the point of major corporations rolling out with non-GMO products, but with this recent lawsuit news, now we have to hope even more that this new ‘non-GMO’ claim will hold true.
The plaintiffs are represented by Todd S. Garber and D. Gregory Blankinship of Finkelstein, Blankinship, Frei-Pearson & Garber, LLP in White Plains, N.Y.; Yvette Golan of The Golan Firm in Houston; and Kim E. Richman of The Richman Law Group of Brooklyn.
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Featured image credit: KrogerKrazy
GMO free but is it “dessicated” with RoundUp, some of the ingredients could be if they are not organic.
Spot on. There are plenty of toxic chemicals that aren’t genetically engineered. We don’t want babies (or anyone else) drinking Those either.
Why aren’t the FDA, USDA and other federal agencies ALSO being sued for NOT doing their job. They get away with murder every time, approving toxic poisons in all products. Federal agencies labels of ‘approval’ should come with the skull and bones on the labels.
Im not an American or I would start a “we the people” campaign against FDA & USDA… To be honest I’m shocked no one yet has!!!
The federal government has worked very hard for over a century to fool the people into thinking the ‘government is taking care of you’…when it’s really the complete opposite but the sheeple are all brainwashed and in the “herd” just how the government wants. They expect the government to think for them.
Common sense is so rare these days it should be classified as a super power.
I’ve phoned and emailed legislators numerous times asking them to investigate corruption/collusion of FDA, USDA, and EPA with the GMO, chemical, and pharmaceutical corporations that stock and fund those agencies. No one has the courage to do so. These corporations/agencies are deliberately and knowingly poisoning our food, and the corporations have now gained almost total control over the government – i.e., fascism.
You’re absolutely correct. The government agencies ALL are running a revolving door operation – for the money. They are NOT about our health and welfare and anybody who believes the government is “looking out for them” has a lot to learn. Always do the opposite of what government advises.
Recent articles show that cities that voted fluoride OUT of their water supply saved lots of money. For some reason (heh), the articles didn’t mention the numerous health benefits. – We used to have ONE source of non-fluroridated water here, but the corrupt city council had it turned off, even though it cost them nothing to have it remain. Now everyone – babies, children, adults, elderly, well, sick, etc. – gets to drink fluoride. Ugh.
Once again, my complaint and plea to Natural Society. Neither the email subject line nor the article title mentioned Similac. SHAME. Your readers are intelligent and very interested in what you have to say, but our time is valuable and, in many cases, limited. We are NOT children who must be teased, cajoled, fooled, coaxed, or duped into reading what is “good” for us. We are adults and very capable of making that choice. Tell us the topic immediately so that we can choose and go on. Treat us like adults. Thank you.
Theres ALWAYS a whiner in the crowd! Who the hell cares (except you) about Slimilac being specifically mentioned in the subject/email line or not!! The article is meant to expose the darkside of the food industry in general, Slimilac is just a small player.
There’s ALWAYS a rude person in the crowd who perhaps has a LONG life expectancy and does NOT spend most of her/his day contacting legislators, corporations, activist groups, individuals, etc. about corporate crimes – a rude person who is trying, as we say in the US south, “to teach his grandmother.” Zip the lip. You have Not found a victim.