Whole Foods Accused of Destroying Evidence in Yogurt Lawsuit

The company was being sued for misrepresenting the product's sugar content

Whole Foods is in the midst of a strange court battle involving yogurt, of all things. Last month, a federal judge in Texas ended a two-year lawsuit against the Austin-based grocery chain Whole Foods, shutting down plaintiffs who claimed the pricey grocer had mislabeled a product's sugar content.

Now, according to Philly.com, those same plaintiffs have filed a new motion claiming the store got rid of evidence by destroying its stockpile of the yogurt in question, its 365 Everyday Value Plain Greek Yogurt.

Originally, the plaintiffs — coming from 11 different states — claimed Whole Foods had mislabeled the yogurt, advertising that it contained only 2 grams of sugar while a Consumer Reports analysis of six samples found it to contain 11.4 grams of sugar. The judge's order handed down in February said these claims did not adhere to federal testing guidelines, according to the Southeast Texas Record.

An admissible sample would have to be conducted on samples from 12 different cases of yogurt, and the plaintiffs allege Whole Foods intentionally destroyed the yogurt to prevent further testing.

Reached for comment by Eater, a Whole Foods spokesperson provided the following statement:

"Whole Foods Market disputes the claims in the recent motion filed by the plaintiffs and intends to vigorously defend the allegations of spoliation which we believe are unfounded. Whole Foods Market took reasonable steps to preserve relevant evidence for this case and we believe there is more than sufficient evidence supporting that fact."

The law firm responsible for this motion is the same one that sued Subway for selling 11-inch "footlong" subs.

Oddly enough, this isn't the only heated yogurt battle to hit a U.S. courtroom recently: Chobani and Dannon have been embroiled in a legal fight over an advertising campaign from the former that accused the latter of using unsavory ingredients in its products.

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