Whole Foods is sued over 'No Antibiotics, Ever' beef claim

(Reuters) - Whole Foods Market was sued on Tuesday by three consumers and an animal welfare nonprofit, in a lawsuit accusing the Amazon.com Inc unit of falsely marketing beef with the slogan "No Antibiotics, Ever."

The proposed class action said recent independent laboratory testing found that Whole Foods' beef contained antibiotic and other pharmaceutical residue, meaning that cattle had been treated with antibiotics or other pharmaceuticals.

Peymon Khaghani, Jason Rose, Sara Safari and the nonprofit Farm Forward said this creates "serious health risks" by contributing to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that consumers eventually ingest, and which may cause infections that cannot be treated with existing antibiotics.

Whole Foods markets at least 42 beef products as free of antibiotics, and charges "substantial" price premiums based on that claim, according to the complaint filed in the federal court in Santa Ana, California.

Neither Whole Foods nor Amazon immediately responded to requests for comment.

Farm Forward said its mission includes efforts to "promote conscientious food choices, reduce farmed animal suffering, and advance sustainable agriculture."

The complaint said lab tests in 2021 and 2022 of meat samples from six Whole Foods locations in Chicago, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Virginia "revealed the presence of pharmaceutical residue, including antibiotic residue."

It also said that after learning from Farm Forward about the results in April, Whole Foods Chief Executive John Mackey unsubscribed from the nonprofit's email list "after having been a board member and mailing list recipient for over a decade."

Mackey is not a defendant in the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs want Whole Foods to correct how it markets its beef, and pay unspecified compensatory and punitive damages to shoppers who overpaid.

The case is Safari et al v Whole Foods Market Inc, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 22-01562.

They lost me at "class action."

Class actions rarely move me either, but stuff like this pushed me to stop treating labels as gospel. For beef I split a quarter with neighbors from a local rancher we can actually visit, and the quality’s been consistent. Costs less per lb than the fancy stores, and I don’t have to second guess what I’m getting.

That's a really wrong advertisement.

People try to get the best possible food, and they pay a lot for it.

To me, this is just as lousy as VW lying about their diesels environmental output.

I don't care about my $3.47 check that this class action will produce. But I hope it forces some kind of change in labeling. I remember hearing about this kind of thing on TikTok. They're allowed to lie about the labels and there's no real regulatory agency keeping an eye on organic/etc.

Food labeling is going to go to shit, due to reasons....

I take all labelling with a grain of salt. As for Amazon Whole Foods, I don't trust anything Amazon does now. They are all about profit, not quality or truth. I stopped using them altogether after they sold me a fake Estee Lauder product, and then would not back it up, putting it back on Estee Lauder, who put it back on Amazon. geez. We are not talking about a cheap product, but a $150 one! I bought clothes from them that comes from China. Their large size would fit a barbie doll and the hem and sleeves were left ragged and unfinished. Ugh. Whole Foods was fine before Amazon. IMO

I'd largely agree about Whole Foods going downhill once Amazon took over. I don't think Amazon cares - they have built almost a retail monopoly over the net so there isn't much pressure to improve WF.