‘Is Any Of It True?’: California Woman Reads Label Of Whole Foods Ranch Dressing. Then She Flips The Bottle—And Catches Them In A Lie

Seeing labels such as “no artificial flavors” or “natural” in the grocery store unfortunately does not guarantee that what you’re getting is healthier or better for you or the environment.

One Consumer Reports survey from 2018-2019 found that shoppers often don’t even understand what some of these labels mean.

To make matters more confusing, the publication noted that many of these terms aren’t backed by government regulation, and even when standards do exist, they don’t necessarily get enforced.

What’s much rarer, though, is seeing something written on the front of a packaged food that appears to be immediately contradicted by what’s on the back.

That’s what one Roseville, California, Whole Foods shopper came across when she picked up a bottle of 365 Whole Foods Market Organic Classic Ranch.

Content creator Sveta (@247sveta) took to TikTok to share her shock. She called out Whole Foods over what she believed was misleading labeling. Her video got over 16,300 views.

What Was Wrong With This Whole Foods Ranch Bottle?

“So I am over at Whole Foods, and I’ve been buying this ranch dressing for a long time,” Sveta says while standing in the store aisle.

She says she’s bought it for years.

“And the front of it, it says, ‘made without canola or soybean oil,’” she says.

She turns the bottle around to show the ingredient list.

“But if you look in the back, the ingredients, soybean oil and/or canola oil are the first two ingredients,” she says.

The bottle shown in the video does appear to make both claims at once.

“So I’m a little confused,” Sveta says. “Whole Foods, what is happening? Which label is true? Is any of it true?”

She says this stings even more since she specifically shops at Whole Foods because she trusts the retailer more than some alternatives.

“I come to Whole Foods because I trust them over Safeway and over other grocery stores,” she says. “But this is not very cool.”

She also called out the retailer in the caption.

“@Whole Foods Market why am I double checking ingredients?” she wrote. “This is clearly misleading labeling. What about allergies?”

Sveta says she also brought the bottle to a manager’s attention.

“I brought this up to Management and he took the bottle from me and placed it back in the fridge,” she wrote.

What Went Wrong Here?

Whole Foods does currently sell a 365 Organic Classic Ranch made with sunflower seed oil instead of canola or soybean oil. Its current family-size listing, for example, lists organic expeller-pressed sunflower seed oil as the first ingredient.

Exactly how this happened is unclear without an explanation from Whole Foods.

It could involve outdated packaging, a production-line mix-up, or another quality-control error.

Viewers Were Appalled

“There is literally no accountability for food anymore,” one commenter wrote.

Another wondered whether the label could violate California law.

“If that is in California that is illegal. notify CA dept of public health,” they wrote.

A third commenter said they had lost trust in the 365 brand altogether.

“The brand 365 is no longer reliable for clean pure ingredients they are an extension of Tyson and since Amazon purchased Whole Foods in 2017 it’s become [trash emoji],” they wrote.

Is This Legal?

Potentially not.

California Health & Safety Code § 110660 says food is misbranded if its labeling is “false or misleading in any particular.” Section 110760 makes it unlawful to manufacture, sell, deliver, hold, or offer for sale food that is misbranded.

It could be considered unlawful under federal standards as well. Section 403(a)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act treats food as misbranded if its labeling is false or misleading.

Additionally, data suggest that 1.5 million Americans in the U.S. suffer from soy allergies. While highly refined soybean oil doesn’t pose a threat to those affected, they should still be aware that something labeled as not containing soybean products, in fact, does.

BroBible has reached out to Whole Foods via email and Sveta via direct messages for comment.