CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - A class action lawsuit takes aim at the amount of olive oil as opposed to vegetable oil in Walmart's Great Value-brand mayonnaise.
Plaintiff Jeremy Guzman filed suit July 5 in Chicago federal court over reduced fat mayo with olive oil sold at Walmart. His lawyer is Spencer Sheehan, who says consumers seek products with olive oil because of its health benefits.
Meanwhile, vegetable oils are highly processed using chemicals, he says. The ingredients list shows there is more soybean oil than olive oil in the mayo.
"By labeling and promoting the product as made 'With Olive Oil,' with green packaging evocative of the color of olives, consumers expect a significant, non-de minimis amount of olive oil, in relative and absolute amounts to all oils used," the suit says.
"The relative and absolute amount of olive oil is insufficient to confer any of the health benefits associated with olive oil nor reduce the harmful effects of the soybean oil used."
Customers were tricked into picking the product over others, the suit says, and paying a premium price for it.