Crisco EVOO Class Action Says Cooking Spray is Falsely Advertised

A California consumer is taking on J.M. Smucker, claiming the company falsely markets its Crisco Olive Oil No-Stick Spray as being “100% Extra Virgin” when clinical testing indicates that the olive oil is actually not EVOO.

Plaintiff Shelly Robinson filed the Crisco EVOO Cooking Spray class action lawsuit in California federal court earlier this month. She claims she purchased Crisco EVOO products during the last four years, relying on the label stating it was Extra Virgin Olive Oil. She later learned that the Crisco EVOO cooking spray was not in fact Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Many consumers choose to pay a premium for products they believe to be healthier or of a higher quality, such as Extra Virgin Olive Oil. In fact, sales of Extra Virgin Olive Oil products have increased in recent years due in large part to the health benefits associated with the ingredient. But what consumers may not realize is that some olive oil manufactures want to capitalize on this demand – at the expense of unsuspecting consumers. Case in point for J.M. Smucker, as the Crisco EVOO Cooking Spray class action lawsuit asserts that, in reality, extensive scientific testing by a leading laboratory shows that Crisco EVOO Cooking Spray is not Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Reportedly, the testing of Crisco EVOO cooking spray measured seven key variables: Insoluble Impurities, Free Fatty Acid, Peroxide Value, Specific Extinction, Ultraviolet Absorption, Sensory analysis, Copper, and Moisture & Volatile Content. According the extensive clinical testing, the results conclusively establish that Crisco EVOO is not Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

“[J.M. Smuckers’] misrepresentations regarding Crisco EVOO are designed to, and did, lead Plaintiff and others similarly situated to believe that Crisco EVOO in fact is Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Plaintiff and members of the Class relied on[J.M. Smuckers’] misrepresentations and would not have paid as much, if at all, for Crisco EVOO but for Defendant’s misrepresentations.”

As a result of this misleading marketing practices, Robinson and other consumers have been taken for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The lawsuit asserts violations of the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, which prohibits “misrepresenting that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities which they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation, or connection which he or she does not have.”

Robinson is bringing this class action lawsuit to enjoin the ongoing deception of consumers by J.M. Smucker and to recover the money consumers paid for what they believed to be a premium product. She is seeking to represent a Class of California consumers who purchased J.M. Smuckers’ Crisco EVOO product during the “applicable limitations period up to and including final judgment in this action.”

Robinson is represented by Scott J. Ferrell of Pacific Trial Attorneys APC.

The Crisco EVOO Cooking Spray Class Action Lawsuit is Shelly Robinson v. The J.M. Smucker Company, et al., Case No. 4:18-cv-04654-DMR, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.