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INSIDE THIS ISSUE From the Desk of John Razumich PAGE 1
Spicing Up Your Fall Coffee PAGE 1
Dog Dials 911 to Save His Owner PAGE 2
The Big Debate Surrounding Alexander the Great’s Death PAGE 3
Roasted Turkey PAGE 3
Jelly Bean Deception PAGE 4
Jelly Bean Deception
Why Jelly Belly Got Sued for Using Sugar
Before Bang and other creatine energy drinks became all the rage, many companies tried their hand at candy designed to energize. Not wanting to miss out on the action, Jelly Belly developed Sports Beans. Like most other energy supplements, Sports Beans contained electrolytes, carbohydrates, and a plethora of B vitamins. They also included the phrase “evaporated cane juice” as one of the ingredients — but this got them into some legal trouble. A woman named Jessica Gomez filed a case against Jelly Belly in 2017 over this ingredient. She claimed the company had falsely advertised their Sports Beans by stating they contained juice instead of sugar. Gomez believed the company portrayed that the beans were healthy by trying to appeal to athletes instead of stating that the product contained sugar. Her complaint argued that the product’s label was designed to mislead consumers, asserting that she would not have been willing to pay as much or at all for the product if she knew it contained sugar.
juice and sugar are interchangeable terms and also cited the product’s nutritional chart which showed that each serving contained 17 grams of sugar. Jelly Belly further picked apart the claim by stating that Gomez did not insist on expecting a sugar-free product, and she did not explain why anyone would be surprised to find sugar in a product described as jelly beans. This is not the first lawsuit against a company for using an alternative term for sugar. Though the Food and Drug Administration does not have any legal requirements regarding “evaporated cane juice,” it recommends calling the ingredient sugar to avoid these instances. The courts ended up siding with Jelly Belly, as Gomez failed to show any facts specific to the purchase or the advertising of the product. False advertising and deceptive practices do happen, but this case was not one of those instances. If Gomez had paid attention to the nutritional chart, this entire lawsuit could have been avoided.
Jelly Belly responded, calling the lawsuit complete nonsense. They pointed out that evaporated cane
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