Guacamole lawsuit: Where's the avocado?

The Associated Press
Posted November 30 2006, 8:24 AM EST


LOS ANGELES -- Wholly guacamole?

That's the issue in a fraud lawsuit filed Wednesday against Kraft Foods, Inc., by a Los Angeles woman who claims the company's avocado dip doesn't qualify as guacamole.



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"It just didn't taste avocadoey," said Brenda Lifsey, who used Kraft Dips Guacamole in a three-layer dip last year. "I looked at the ingredients and found there was almost no avocado in it."

She is seeking unspecified damages and a Superior Court order barring Kraft from calling its dip guacamole. Her suit seeks class-action status.

The Kraft product contains modified food starch, coconut and soybean oils, corn syrup and food coloring. It is less than 2 percent avocado, which in traditional recipes is the main ingredient of the Mexican dish.

The government doesn't have any requirements on how much avocado a product must contain to be labeled guacamole, said Michael Herndon, a spokesman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft said it had not seen the lawsuit but believed it was not deceiving anyone.

"We think customers understand that it isn't made from avocado," Claire Regan, Kraft Foods' vice president of corporate affairs, told the Los Angeles Times. "All of the ingredients are listed on the label for consumers to reference."

However, the company will relabel the product to make it clearer that the dip is guacamole-flavored, Regan said.

What a scam! They don't care about our health, just making a profit! White flour is cheaper than avocados. Hope they get there pants sued off.

It is funny how the junk food companies deceive people. Hershy's chocolate syrup does not contain chocolate, and Aunt Jemima Syrup does not contain maple syrup. They are made with toxic chemicals that contribute to poor health.

Actually, I don't think the amount of avocado in guac is defined. I took a spainish class many years ago. I remember the instructor talking about regional differences in mexican foods. Also about economic differences in the way food is prepared. She said that guac is always a mixture of avocados and tomatoes, and spices and perhaps a few other minor ingredients. Due to regional, economic and seasonal differences the guac can be mostly avocado. Especially if one was really rich. It was a sign of wealth if your guac was almost entirely avocado. If you were poor the guac was closer to an avocado flavored salsa, being mostly tomatoes.

There are a lot of very difficult to define terms being used to market foods and other products. "Lite" can refer to the color, not the texture or caloric content, or perhaps a more subtle flavor. "Natural" has been used in a number of contexts, but when reading the ingredients you might find refined flour, and sugar and other things you might not think of as being natural. A certain soft drink was marketed as being natural, and it contained high fructose corn syrup, one of the most unnatural substances on earth.

I have even seen hydrogenated oils on the ingredient list for peanutbutter marketed as being 'free of trans fats'. It appears that they got away with this by reducing the serving size to an unrealist amount, like a 1/2 a teaspoon. The amount of trans fat is 'trivial' in such a small serving size from a legal perspective perhaps. But in reality, who uses only a 1/2 teaspoon to make a PB&J?

Unfortunately, one has read lables carefully, and hope that all the ingredients are reflected accurately and honestly. Hopefully you can spot products which are trying to dip into popular trends without making real changes.

The thing about guac however is a real tough one. The product is obviously not meeting many consumers expectations, but from a legal perspective they might be able to get away with it. Perhaps it will however cause changes for the better to help consumers get what they think they were buying.

Personally I wouldn't call this guacamole. It just shows that you need to pay attention to the ingredients list.
People should look at what they are eating, but on the other hand companies should not try to mislead people as I believe Kraft have done here.

ti could be guacamole flavored guacamole powder mixed with fat

I'm thinking that if she wanted "avocadoey," she should have purchased an avocado.

I did say, "The product is obviously not meeting many consumers expectations"

cool, I hope she wins.