The NYTimes recently reported that people are getting angry about truffle oil. So angry that they are suing.
“Here in the United States, bottling the truffle has become big business. In May, four class-action lawsuits filed in New York and California accused… [companies] of ‘false, misleading, and deceptive misbranding’ of its truffle oil products… ingredients include truffle ‘aroma’ or ‘flavor’ or ‘essence.’ That’s the chemical 2,4-dithiapentane. Also known as bis (methylthio) methane, it supplies a fair imitation of the natural truffle smell… These lawsuits argue that the consumer is unlikely to know that ‘flavor” doesn’t mean fungus. A reasonable consumer, she told me, would assume that these products actually contained truffles. [Bonnie Patten of the nonprofit organization Truth in Advertising] ”
Good. We are happy that the law is finally getting hip to the unethical sham that is truffle oil. We at Gustiamo have been angry about truffle oil since 1999. Here are some gems for the GustiBlog archive on the subject: Frank Bruni’s Last Tips: Say No to Truffle Oil, The Fact About Flavored Oils, and Listen to the Experts – Say No to Truffle Oil!!!
Here’s the link to read the full article on the NYTimes ‘Truffle Oil’ Without Any Actual Truffles.