Blue Diamond Smokehouse Almonds Class Action Filed

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Blue Diamond “Smokehouse” Almonds Challenged

by: Food and Drug Law at Keller and Heckman of Keller and Heckman LLP - The Daily Intake

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

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A class action filed January 28 in Pennsylvania alleges that Blue Diamond Growers’ “Smokehouse” almonds are deceptive because the products’ smoke flavors come primarily from synthesized liquid smoke, rather than from exposure to hardwood smoke.
According to the claim, the word “Smokehouse” appears across a red ribbon with orange borders and above a “fiery orange polygon, evocative of fire,” which gives consumers the impression that the almonds were made in a smokehouse. However, the label does not disclose that the almonds’ flavor does not come from actual smoke. While the ingredient list includes “Natural Hickory Smoke Flavor,” which is a form of pyroligneous acid or synthesized liquid smoke, the claim alleges that this information does not inform consumers that the almonds were not subject to smoking over hardwood.
FDA requires companies to declare pyroligneous acid or other artificial smoke flavors as an “artificial flavor” or “artificial smoke flavor,” and no representation may be directly made or implied that a food flavored with pyroligneous acid or artificial smoke flavor has been smoked or has a true smoked flavor. 21 CFR 101.22(h)(6). Further, the claim argues, competitor products do “conspicuously disclose” that the smoked taste is from flavoring, rather than hardwood smoke, on their front labels, making the Blue Diamond product misleading because it is not “uniform among all identical or similar products.” 21 CFR 102.5(a).
The claim also alleges that the smokehouse flavored almonds are conspicuously labeled as having a “smokehouse flavour” outside of the United States, and past versions of the packaging in the U.S. were truthfully labeled as “hickory smoked.”
This is not the first time Blue Diamond has been the subject of a deceptive advertising claim over the “smokehouse” label. In 2023, similar claims were filed in Illinois and Wisconsin, with the Wisconsin case being dismissed because “no reasonable consumer would interpret the label as describing the production method, versus flavor.”