Man Sues Halo Top After Learning That It's Actually Diet Ice Cream

Oh Halo no.

Josh Berger, a resident of Queens, NY, feels he got suckered into buying diet ice cream by Halo Top, the low-calorie pint line whose popularity has seemingly skyrocketed in recent years, when he thought he was buying the full-fat stuff. So, naturally, he’s suing.

According to a report yesterday by the New York Post, Berger bought a pint of the light ice cream in 2017, and only discovered his error when he realized the texture of the product wasn’t as creamy as he expected. He claims that the fact that the product was technically “light ice cream” was not immediately obvious from the packaging, and thus, in a totally proportional and rational response, he filed a tort case against Halo Top’s parent company, Eden Creamery LLC, in a federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday.

According to the FDA’s regulations for food labeling, ice cream containing less than 10 percent milk fat is no ice cream at all, and has to be labeled as “light” accordingly. Berger claims that the “light” label on the Halo Top pint he purchased was not as obviously visible as it was on other low-calorie ice cream products.

To the courts, it could be considered a product liability if it’s not immediately clear that Halo Top doesn’t meet the legal standard of identity for true ice cream. Anyone who has ever observed the fact that Halo Top mysteriously remains solid after hours of sitting at room temperature on the counter would probably say this suit is a little unnecessary. When reached for comment on their labeling practices, Halo Top declined to speak about pending litigation.

According to the filing, Berger is also claiming that "the brand name 'Halo Top' is misleading because consumers often associate the word 'Halo' with the color yellow, consistent with common dictionary definition which refers to it as a disk or circle of light surrounding or above the head of a saint to represent their holiness. Consumers also know that yellow is the color associated with butter and cream, because of the milk produced by pasture-raised and forage-eating cows."

Frankly, that’s a much less offensive interpretation of halo iconography than implying that eating fewer calories and depriving yourself of full-fat desserts is somehow more holy or virtuous than Häagen-Dazs. Thanks, Josh—we'll go with that.