October 21, 2003

When is a fruit not a fruit?

When she's in California. Then she's just part of the crowd.

Smucker Sued Over '100 Percent Fruit' Label

A California woman with a "sensitive palate" has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the J.M. Smucker Co claiming that its familiar label is misleading since its spreadable jam is less than half fruit.

Tests on "simply 100 percent" strawberry jam revealed that the spread contained less than 30 percent actual strawberries and the blueberry version contained just 43 percent berries, the lawsuit said.

The premium jam also contains fruit syrup, lemon juice concentrate, fruit pectin, red grape juice concentrate and natural flavors, according to the Smuckers Web site.

Fruit syrup is from fruit, right? I mean it's right there in the name. Fruit syrup. As far as I know, lemons have not been declassified as fruits. Then there's fruit pectin. Again, the "fruit" right there in the name. Pectin is "any of various water-soluble substances that bind adjacent cell walls in plant tissues and yield a gel which is the basis of fruit jellies". In other words, this is the stuff that transforms fruit mush into preserves. Red grapes are fruit, yes? They don't say what the natural flavors are but I have a strange hunch that they might be something fruity.

So is this case being brought by:

  1. A wacko who genuinely believes that she has been ripped off.

  2. An idiot that doesn't understand the difference between 100% strawberry and 100% fruit.

  3. Your average sue happy con looking for a quick buck in an overly litigious society.

Posted by: Jim at 09:06 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 I'm guessing the class-action mode suggests "A", but I'd say it's the extended version: A solipsistic wacko who genuinely believes that she has been ripped off and has too much time on her hands.

Posted by: Tuning Spork at October 21, 2003 07:48 PM (9U+Jy)

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