New Yorker taking on snacking giant Blue Diamond over misbranding
Harlem's Leela O'Connor says shoppers are duped into thinking the nuts are roasted over a real wood fire, when in reality, they're just doused with liquid smoke.
The almonds' packaging, 'emblazoned on a red banner, with orange edges, evocative of fire,' made her picture a smokehouse or the burning of hardwoods in nature, she claimed in her Manhattan Supreme Court filing against the company.
Advertisement
O'Connor, 48, felt cheated when the fine print revealed an ingredient called 'natural hickory smoke flavor,' she claimed.
3 The lawsuit cites RFK Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' movement and the quest for 'real' foods.
AP
'Natural hickory smoke flavor is another name for the 'quasi-toxic' additive, 'liquid smoke,' that results from 'somehow turning smoke into a liquid,'' she fumed in court papers.
Advertisement
She cited Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' movement as motivation for her legal claim.
'An increasing number of consumers seek to avoid 'fake foods,' which are based on highly processed and/or chemically manufactured substances,' O'Connor said in the litigation, referring to the Health Secretary's crusade against additives.
The European Union voted last year to ban liquid smoke, an ingredient used in marinades, processed meats and even the McRib, after research from the European Food Safety Authority linked it to cancer.
3 The offending almonds.
Blue Diamond Almonds
Advertisement
To add insult to injury, O'Connor said she paid more for the almonds, $4.19, than she would have, had she known they were not made in a smokehouse.
'These almonds have never seen the inside of a smokehouse,' insisted Long Island attorney Spencer Sheehan, who's filed the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.
3 Sheehan has been nicknamed the 'vanilla vigilante.'
Spencer Sheehan/Facebook
Sheehan, one of the country's most prolific consumer class-action lawyers, earned the nicknamed the 'vanilla vigilante' because he's gone after companies using fake vanilla flavoring in their food so many times.
Advertisement
In 2022, he reached a $2.6 million settlement with Blue Diamond in a proposed federal class action case against the company's misleading vanilla-flavored Almond Breeze milk.
'Blue Diamond has been cheating the public for a long time,' he told The Post. 'New Yorkers don't like fake things.'
Last year, a similar class-action suit was filed in Illinois.
'We are disappointed that Mr. Sheehan has decided to pursue yet another case challenging the labeling of Blue Diamond's Smokehouse almonds,' Rachael Kessler, the company's outside counsel, told The Post.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declares 'loyalty' to Trump, rules out a 2028 presidential bid
WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he's not running for president in 2028 and intends to remain in his position until President Donald Trump leaves office. The leader of the "Make America Healthy Again" movement said in an X post that his "loyalty" lies with Trump, and he dismissed speculation about his political future as part of a "smear campaign" from disgruntled Washington insiders who oppose the MAHA agenda. "They're pushing the flat-out lie that I'm running for president in 2028. Let me be clear: I am not running for president in 2028," Kennedy said. Kennedy competed for the presidency in 2024, first as a Democrat and later as an independent, before suspending his candidacy last August and throwing his support behind Trump. After the election, Trump made him HHS secretary. His comments ruling out a 2028 bid came far-right activist Laura Loomer accused Kennedy aide Stefanie Spear of using her position at HHS to lay the groundwork for Kennedy to run again. Loomer's comment came in a Politico interview and followed an Axios report in July that said Kennedy super PAC head Tony Lyons and Spear convened MAHA supporters on a call that left some attendees with the impression he was mulling another campaign. But in his social media post, Kennedy said, "The president has made himself the answer to my 20-year prayer that God would put me in a position to end the chronic disease epidemic — and that's exactly what my team and I will do until the day he leaves office."
New York Post
7 hours ago
- New York Post
New Yorker taking on snacking giant Blue Diamond over misbranding
A New York woman is roasting almond giant Blue Diamond, claiming in a new class-action lawsuit that its nuts are misbranded to fool people into thinking they're naturally smoked. Harlem's Leela O'Connor says shoppers are duped into thinking the nuts are roasted over a real wood fire, when in reality, they're just doused with liquid smoke. The almonds' packaging, 'emblazoned on a red banner, with orange edges, evocative of fire,' made her picture a smokehouse or the burning of hardwoods in nature, she claimed in her Manhattan Supreme Court filing against the company. Advertisement O'Connor, 48, felt cheated when the fine print revealed an ingredient called 'natural hickory smoke flavor,' she claimed. 3 The lawsuit cites RFK Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' movement and the quest for 'real' foods. AP 'Natural hickory smoke flavor is another name for the 'quasi-toxic' additive, 'liquid smoke,' that results from 'somehow turning smoke into a liquid,'' she fumed in court papers. Advertisement She cited Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' movement as motivation for her legal claim. 'An increasing number of consumers seek to avoid 'fake foods,' which are based on highly processed and/or chemically manufactured substances,' O'Connor said in the litigation, referring to the Health Secretary's crusade against additives. The European Union voted last year to ban liquid smoke, an ingredient used in marinades, processed meats and even the McRib, after research from the European Food Safety Authority linked it to cancer. 3 The offending almonds. Blue Diamond Almonds Advertisement To add insult to injury, O'Connor said she paid more for the almonds, $4.19, than she would have, had she known they were not made in a smokehouse. 'These almonds have never seen the inside of a smokehouse,' insisted Long Island attorney Spencer Sheehan, who's filed the suit, which seeks unspecified damages. 3 Sheehan has been nicknamed the 'vanilla vigilante.' Spencer Sheehan/Facebook Sheehan, one of the country's most prolific consumer class-action lawyers, earned the nicknamed the 'vanilla vigilante' because he's gone after companies using fake vanilla flavoring in their food so many times. Advertisement In 2022, he reached a $2.6 million settlement with Blue Diamond in a proposed federal class action case against the company's misleading vanilla-flavored Almond Breeze milk. 'Blue Diamond has been cheating the public for a long time,' he told The Post. 'New Yorkers don't like fake things.' Last year, a similar class-action suit was filed in Illinois. 'We are disappointed that Mr. Sheehan has decided to pursue yet another case challenging the labeling of Blue Diamond's Smokehouse almonds,' Rachael Kessler, the company's outside counsel, told The Post.
CNN
21 hours ago
- CNN
NIH director lays out agency's research and funding priorities in new strategy statement
LGBTQ issuesFacebookTweetLink Follow The director of the US National Institutes of Health outlined on Friday a 'unified strategy' to align the agency's priorities and funding, a move he said was meant to offer clarification following sweeping changes at the agency, including massive budget cuts, grant cancellations and plans for reorganization. In Friday's statement, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya emphasized the need for transparency with the taxpaying American public and an intent to 'honor their trust.' He identified key priorities for the NIH, including chronic disease and nutrition – as per an executive order 'on Gold-Standard Science and the Make America Healthy Again Commission Report' – as well as artificial intelligence, alternative testing models and real-world data platforms. He also noted that the agency is dedicated to supporting research that pursues 'innovative, and sometimes controversial, questions.' NIH funding decisions will reflect these priorities and other 'core principles,' the statement said. 'As stewards of taxpayer funds, NIH must deliver results that matter to the public,' Bhattacharya wrote. 'Through this strategy, we will better leverage the synergistic missions of each NIH Institute and Center to fund the most meritorious science, address urgent health needs, and sustain a robust biomedical research workforce.' More details were shared on certain agency priorities with an intent to 'clarify specific issues that currently require additional guidance,' the statement said, including autism, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, research on racial disparities, transgender care and more. In April, a policy note from the NIH said the agency can pull medical research funding from universities with diversity and inclusion programs. Friday's statement noted that the NIH was 'shifting to solution-oriented approaches in health disparities research.' 'In contrast to research that considers race or ethnicity when scientifically justified […] research based on ideologies that promote differential treatment of people based on race or ethnicity, rely on poorly defined concepts or on unfalsifiable theories, does not follow the principles of gold-standard science,' the statement read. NIH also intends to prioritize research focused on what it called 'more promising avenues of research' for the the health of transgender youth than studies involving treatments such as puberty suppression, hormone therapy or surgery. 'Research that aims to identify and treat the harms these therapies and procedures have potentially caused to minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder, or gender incongruence, and how to best address the needs of these individuals so that they may live long, healthy lives is more promising,' the statement said. Multiple priorities emphasize a preference for domestic research, including a new system to manage projects with funding for foreign research institutions and a blueprint for domestic training programs. NIH will also prioritize research that can be replicated or reproduced. 'We are exploring various mechanisms to support scientists focused on replication work, to publish negative findings, and to elevate replication research,' the statement read.
