Whole Foods sued for ‘No Antibiotics, Ever' marketing slogan for beef

Whole Foods is facing a new lawsuit after an independent testing result showed that its raw beef products have antibiotics and other residues. The result did not match the supermarket chain’s claim that the meat has no such substances in its system.

Whole Foods has been marketing its beef using the slogan “No Antibiotics, Ever,” however the laboratory test results refuted this claim. In response to this, three customers have filed a case against the company. A non-profit animal welfare organization is also a plaintiff in the suit.

As per Reuters, they are accusing Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, of false advertisement. At the moment, this is a proposed class action suit, and the consumers are attaching the lab test results as evidence.

They noted that beef at the supermarket actually contained antibiotics and other pharmaceutical residues. This means that the cattle had been treated with medicines to fight bacterial infections.

The supermarket chain currently sells at least 42 raw beef products, and these are being marketed by saying they are antibiotics-free. Since these are organic products, Whole Foods is said to be charging premium prices. Thus, the beef is expensive.

The lawsuit has been filed in the federal court in Santa Ana, California. The plaintiffs are Sara Safari, Peymon Khaghani, Jason Rose, and Farm Forward non-profit org. They emphasized that making such false claims creates "serious health risks" since the consumers may get infections that cannot be treated with antibiotics after ingesting the beef.

Attached in the complaint are the lab test results from meat samples obtained in 2021 and 2022. These were collected from six Whole Foods branches in Virginia, Chicago, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City.

Farm Forward said that one of its missions is to promote conscientious food choices, lessen the suffering of farmed animals, and advance sustainable agriculture." Along with Khaghani, Rose, and Safari, the organization wants Whole Foods to rectify how it markets its beef and pay compensatory and punitive damages to the consumers who overpaid, Fox Business reported.

Finally, Whole Foods did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The media outlet was not able to reach its parent company, Amazon, as well.