Whole Foods is sued over 'No Antibiotics, Ever' beef claim
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[August 24, 2022]
By Jonathan Stempel
(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.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Aug/24/images/ads/current/hartsburggrain_sda_FAIR_2022.png)
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."
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![](../images/082422PIX/health27.jpg)
A Whole Foods Market store is seen in
Santa Monica, California, U.S. March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy
Nicholson/
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Aug/24/images/ads/current/Front_line_Ag_lda_FAIR_2022.png) 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.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Richard
Pullin)
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