FLINT, Mich. (Legal Newsline) - Consumers complaining about its smoked gouda got exactly what they paid for, Kroger is saying as it fights a class action lawsuit.
The case says Kroger's smoked gouda wasn't actually smoked. Instead, smoke flavor was used, which misled customers paying a premium for smoked products, lawyer Spencer Sheehan argued in an Aug. 13 complaint filed in Michigan federal court.
Kroger says its packaging never promised anything other than the flavor of smoke, no matter how it was accomplished.
"Plaintiffs bought and received smoked gouda cheese with 'distinctive, smoky flavor,' and the packaging does not mislead about the source of that flavor," says Kroger's motion to dismiss, filed Dec. 16.
"Plaintiffs do not complain about the 'smoky flavor' but instead quibble over whether the product was wood smoked, flavored with 'liquid smoke,' or a combination of both.
"It is a stretch that the reasonable consumer would be aware of such details aout the various ways smoked flavor can be instilled into cheese, or that they care."
Plaintiffs Janet Avigne and Lauren Morgan say smoke flavoring is more convenient but lacks the "rich, layered combination of phenols and other odor-active compounds" of wood smoked-foods.
“In the past two decades, consumers have increasingly embraced smoked foods, as made without advanced chemistry and synthetic additives," the suit says.
The suit alleges Kroger's failure to disclose the use of smoke flavoring on the front label misleads consumers.
Kroger says the outside of the gouda is sprayed with liquid smoke, then the cheese goes through two rounds of processing in a smoking chamber.
"Plaintiff's counsel knows this from discovery in other cases he brought against Kroger," a footnote says.