- Spence Sheehan has filed more than 100 lawsuits over vanilla flavoring.
- He argued companies can not say their product has vanilla if it’s not mostly from vanilla beans.
- Experts have said these cases have no merit because customers don’t expect real vanilla.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
The Business Insider reports….
Over the past two years, New York lawyer Spencer Sheehan has filed more than 100 lawsuits against companies marketing products with imitation vanilla flavoring as simply “vanilla.”
Sheehan told Insider he started these cases after noticing a bottle of A&W Root Beer had a label saying “made with aged vanilla” on it. He said he was skeptical about whether it contained authentic vanilla.
“I didn’t really know too much about the vanilla flavoring at that time, but I could sense that something was amiss and eventually I gathered more information and was able to connect with many more people who are more knowledgeable than me and after that, I filed a couple of cases,” Sheehan said.
Companies like Chobani, McDonald’s, the drink-maker Keurig Dr Pepper, and the Trader Joe’s grocery chain have all been targeted by the suits, which involve various products, from ice cream to yogurt, milk, and coffee creamer.
Sheehan says he believes companies are tricking customers since their products usually only have a tiny amount of pure vanilla.
Pure vanilla is harvested from vanilla beans. HuffPost reported in 2019 that a kilogram cost around $US500 ($645). From planting to harvesting and curing, it can take between 12 to 14 months before vanilla beans can be used to produce the vanilla extract.
Artificial vanilla, which is more commonly used, is made from a synthetic form of vanillin, the main compound in vanilla beans that gives them their flavor. Synthetic vanillin is made from things like wood pulp, clove oil, and – at one point – the anal glands of beavers, HuffPost reported.
Imitation vanilla can be at least 20 times cheaper to produce than natural vanilla.
Legal experts told Insider Sheehan’s cases don’t have much merit because customers don’t expect natural vanilla in products as long as the products taste like vanilla.
But Sheehan said it’s uncommon for people to know the difference and that they should be able to make up their own minds about whether or not they care.
