Trader Joe’s customers have sued the popular grocery chain claiming there is not enough caffeine in their coffee.
The lawsuit filed in California Thursday alleges that Trader Joe’s deceived customers into believing its French Roast Low Acid whole bean coffee had significantly more caffeine than it did.
“It is so common that it is now cliché that coffee drinkers depend on the caffeine contained therein to provide them with the energy they need to get through the day,” the lawsuit said, according to several media outlets.
But when the coffee was tested, it was found to contain half the caffeine of a regular blend, according to the lawsuit.
The French Roast Low Acid coffee has 51 percent of the caffeine of Trader Joe’s Dark French Roast coffee and 45 percent of the caffeine of Trader Joe’s House Blend coffee, NBC News reported, citing the lawsuit.
The Independent has reached out to Trader Joe’s and the customer’s attorney for comment.
It’s standard not to indicate the amount of caffeine in coffee on a product’s label “unless some process is used to reduce the amount of caffeine,” the lawsuit said.
“For example, full caffeinated coffee does not have any special labeling denoting that it is fully caffeinated, but ‘decaf’ and ‘half-caff’ coffees are labelled as such,” the lawsuit said.
Trader Joe’s customers claim the French Roast Low Acid coffee “does not disclose that it is ‘decaf’ and ‘half-caff’ coffee.”
Since the coffee is not labeled as such, customers were led to “purchase the product believing that it is fully caffeinated when it is not.”
The lawsuit seeks to bar Trader Joe’s “unlawful sales and marketing” of the product, according to the New York Post, as well as monetary damages.
Trader Joe’s is also facing a separate lawsuit, in which a Portland woman claims she found a fingertip from a rubber glove in the grocery chain’s orange juice.
Julee O’Neil was “concerned that the human hand that was in the tip of the glove was also severed and was part of the pulp she had been periodically drinking,” the lawsuit said, according to multiple outlets.
