\n<\/p>\n
A group of consumers have filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Costco Wholesale Corporation, accusing the retailer of selling protein powder \u201ctainted\u201d with toxic heavy metals with no warning to consumers.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in federal court in Washington state, names seven consumers as plaintiffs. They allege that Costco violated consumer protection and false advertising laws by selling and marketing Orgain Organic Protein Powder as \u201chigh quality, clean, and nutritious without disclosing the presence or risk of heavy metals, including lead, cadmium, and arsenic\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeavy metals are known to pose significant and adverse health risks and consequences to humans,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n
It continued: \u201cAs a major national retailer with sophisticated supply-chain management and quality control processes, Costco knew or should have known about the heavy metals in the Contaminated Products it sells, including the Contaminated Products. Despite this knowledge, or constructive knowledge, Costco continued to sell the Contaminated Products without any warning or disclosure to consumers regarding the presence or material risk of heavy metals in the Contaminated Products.\u201d<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs argue that \u201creasonable customers\u201d could \u201cnot learn of the inclusion of heavy metals in the contaminated products unless Costco included a proper disclosure, because identifying the presence of heavy metals requires expensive and sophisticated laboratory testing.\u201d They further allege: \u201cCostco failed to perform or require any heavy metal testing, or to disclose the presence of heavy metals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Costco and Orgain did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Guardian on Thursday.<\/p>\n
In a statement provided to the Seattle Times on Wednesday, an Orgain spokesperson said that \u201cwhile trace amounts of substances that occur in the environment can be present in plant-based ingredients, our products comply with applicable food safety standards and guidance\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stand behind the safety and quality of our products,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs cite testing and reporting by \u201cthe Clean Label Project and Consumer Reports\u201d in their complaint, which they say found \u201cdetectable levels of heavy metals\u201d in protein powder products, including in the Orgain Organic Protein Powder. The complaint states that Consumer Reports tested Orgain Organic Plant-Based Protein Powder Vanilla Bean and found that it \u201cexceeded its \u2018level of concern\u2019 for lead\u201d.<\/p>\n
An investigation from Consumer Reports last year found that protein powders can contain \u201ctroubling levels\u201d of toxic heavy metals. The organization said that after testing 23 protein powders and ready-to-drink shakes from popular brands, they found that heavy metal contamination had become \u201ceven more common among protein products\u201d and that more than two-thirds of the products \u201ccontained more lead in a single serving\u201d than the organization\u2019s food safety experts \u201csay is safe to have in a day\u201d.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit this week also says that one of the plaintiffs and their lawyers conducted independent laboratory testing which they claim \u201cconfirmed the presence of heavy metals\u201d in the Orgain protein powder.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200b\u200bDefendant\u2019s business practices \u2013 including the misrepresentations and omissions \u2013 were deceptive, misleading, unfair, and\/or false because, among other things, the contaminated products contained undisclosed toxic heavy metals,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs are asking the court to require Costco to \u201cdisclose the presence and levels of heavy metals\u201d in the products it sells in its stores and online, and to stop selling \u201csuch products without adequate disclosure of heavy metal contamination\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A group of consumers have filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Costco Wholesale Corporation, accusing the retailer of selling protein powder \u201ctainted\u201d with toxic heavy metals with no warning to consumers. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in federal court in Washington state, names seven consumers as plaintiffs. They allege that Costco violated consumer protection and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[2124,15605,5250,3289,5684,16899,13049,2026,199,4795,1577,5118],"class_list":{"0":"post-51021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-accused","9":"tag-costco","10":"tag-heavy","11":"tag-lawsuit","12":"tag-metals","13":"tag-powder","14":"tag-protein","15":"tag-selling","16":"tag-state","17":"tag-tainted","18":"tag-toxic","19":"tag-washington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}