HARRISBURG – Four plaintiffs ranging from middle-aged to senior citizens allege they have suffered permanent cardiac damage as a result of eating Hershey-brand black licorice candy, due to its containing a compound which they say causes those effects.
Jane Lavoie-Fern of Tacoma, Wash., Sherry Konwaler of Soddy Dolly, Tenn., Harvey Horowitz of Lake Worth, Fla. and Marie Bruen of Boston, Mass. filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on July 15 versus The Hershey Company, of Hershey.
“Defendant Hershey is now, and at all times mentioned in this complaint was, in the business of producing and selling various food and beverage items, including certain black licorice products such as its Twizzlers and Good and Plenty brands. Black licorice contains the compound glycyrrhizin (also known as glycyrrhizic acid), which is the sweetening compound derived from licorice root,” the suit states.
“Glycyrrhizin can have very harmful effects on the body, such as causing potassium levels in the body to fall dramatically, and can create harmful imbalances in other minerals such as sodium. As a result, consumption of black licorice can cause people to experience abnormal heart rhythms, high blood pressure, edema (swelling), lethargy, and/or congestive heart failure.”
The suit alleges while “many black licorice products in the United States use one or more synthetic ingredients that mimic the flavor and smell of the black licorice root and that are safer,”, the defendant “has refused to use such substitutes, and instead continues to use the dangerous glycyrrhizin compound.”
Additionally, the suit says that while Hershey has faced litigation from other plaintiffs and/or their estates, who suffered permanent atrial fibrillation or death as a result of eating their black licorice product, it has not placed any warnings on that product.
According to the lawsuit, the four plaintiffs, all ranging in age from their 50’s to their 70’s, each suffered various cardiac maladies – allegedly as a result of eating the defendant’s black licorice product – including heart failure, edema, skyrocketing blood pressure and atrial fibrillation.
For counts of negligence and strict liability, the plaintiffs are seeking general damages, special damages, and punitive damages in an amount to be proven at trial, plus pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, attorneys’ fees, the costs and disbursements of the within action, and such other, further and different relief, which this Court deems just and proper.
The plaintiffs are represented by Walter T. Grabowski of Holland Brady & Grabowski in Wilkes-Barre, plus Jonathan Ellery Neuman of the Law Offices of Jonathan E. Neuman, in Fresh Meadows, N.Y.
The defendant has not yet secured legal counsel.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case 1:21-cv-01245
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com