Dean Foods Accused of Silk Soy Milk 'Bait and Switch'

(MoneyWatch)  People were angry when Horizon switched its "organic" dairy products to the legally meaningless "natural," but at least they knew about it.

Another Dean Foods (DF) brand, Silk, made the same change but didn't bother to change the packaging -- or even the bar code. The word "natural" quietly replaced the word "organic" on Silk soy milk containers, and the price stayed the same.

Some stores didn't notice at first. When the owners of Sunflower, a small Texas chain of health food stores, realized the switch had been made months earlier without their knowledge, they were furious. They put up hand-made signs alerting customers that the Silk products were no longer organic. "We don't want to be part of customer deception," one of the owners said.

Target (TGT), meanwhile, has continued to run ads featuring the old Silk cartons, with the word "organic" still appearing. The Cornucopia Institute has filed formal complaints with the USDA's organic program, accusing Target of misleading consumers.

Not that it would necessarily make much of a difference -- a lot of customers believe, erroneously, that "natural" products are legally held to higher standards than "organic" products, even though in fact, "natural" has no legal meaning in the United States except for in meat products.

As I said before, if Dean Foods wants to save a buck by switching to conventional ingredients, that's their decision, but trying to hide the fact is pretty skeevy.

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