TRENTON, NJ. — Grillo’s Pickles, Inc. claims that Wahlburgers pickles, that are promoted as recent, all-natural, and preservative-free, do include synthetic chemical preservatives, in accordance with a lawsuit filed Jan. three in U.S. District Court docket for the District of New Jersey.
Pickles are offered within the refrigerated sections of grocery shops, usually together with different pickles. The alleged false and deceptive claims about Wahlburgers pickles harm Grillo’s Pickles, Westwood, Massachusetts, by way of diverted gross sales, lack of shelf house and lack of market share, in accordance with the lawsuit.
Defendants within the lawsuit embody Patriot Pickle, Inc., ARKK Meals Co. and Wahlburgers I, LLC. Patriot Pickle manufactures, packages, labels and ships Wahlburgers Pickles from Patriot’s Wayne, NJ facility on behalf of ARKK Meals Co. and Wahlburgers. ARKK controls your entire line of Wahlburgers retail merchandise. Wahlburgers I LLC, Hingham, Mass., owns the Wahlburgers emblems on gherkin labels.
Patriot Pickle didn’t touch upon the lawsuit, in accordance with a spokesperson, whereas ARKK Meals Co. and Wahlburgers didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Testing by Biogen Laboratory Developments, LLC revealed that Wahlburgers pickles contained benzoic acid, which is usually added to meals through sodium benzoate, a man-made chemical designed to increase the shelf lifetime of pickles, in accordance with the lawsuit. . Biogen check certificates of research point out that Wahlburger Sizzling Dill Chip Pickles contained sodium benzoate at a focus of 641 components per million (ppm), Wahlburger Dill Tip Pickles contained sodium benzoate at a focus between 424 and 436 ppm, and Wahlburger Dill Chip Pickles contained sodium benzoate at a focus of 600 ppm.
The lawsuit requests that the defendants embody the title of the substitute chemical preservative on product labels and describe it as a chemical preservative. The lawsuit seeks to award Grillo the next aid: any damages suffered by Grillo to be decided at trial, treble damages, affordable attorneys’ charges and prices, and punitive damages in an quantity to be decided at trial.