NYPost: Veggie Straws

There’s no actual veggies in ‘Veggie Straws’: suit

By Lisa Fickenscher, July 6, 2017 

Two snack-loving men have sued Hain Celestial Group after discovering there are no actual vegetables in the company’s popular Garden Veggie Straws.

The snack food, which claims to have 30 percent less fat than potato chips, comes in bags with photos of spinach, a tomato and a potato on the front.

That did not amuse the men, whose federal court suit claims Garden Veggie Straws “do not contain any of the actual vibrantly depicted vegetables” and are instead “misleading” consumers “who consciously seek out healthy foods and snacks.”

The snack’s ingredient list includes some salt, starch and a lot of baloney, the suit claims — and not vine-ripened tomatoes.

The Lake Success, NY-based company, one of the largest purveyors of natural and organic packaged foods, lists as the actual ingredients: potato starch, corn starch, tomato paste and spinach powder.

The suit, filed by John Solak of Bible School Park, NY, and Jim Figger of Murrieta, Calif., is among a growing number of food-related lawsuits that claim products are not as “natural” or “healthy” as advertised. Some legal experts are crying foul.

“These courtroom food fights are not about consumer protection,” said Tom Stebbins, executive director, Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, adding that the Hain suit is “just another absurd cash grab by money-hungry trial lawyers.”

Not so, said Sergei Lemberg, the lawyer representing Solak and Figger.

“This is an important lawsuit because the advertising dupes unsuspecting consumers, who are frequently children, into thinking that they are eating veggies..”

Hain did not return requests for comment.

Original story: At The New York Post