Ice Cream Fan Sues Brand He Says Tricked Him Into Buying Diet

QUEENS, NY -- A Queens man was not pleased when he opened his pint of ice cream to find diet dairy instead of the real deal, so he decided to sue the maker for what he says is misleading packaging.

Josh Berger thought he was in for regular ice cream when he bought a pint of the low-calorie ice cream Halo Top in 2017, The New York Post reported.

Though the California-based ice cream brand is best known for displaying calorie counts - between 280 and 360 calories per pint - across each tub, that wasn't clear enough for Berger. He called the labeling "false, deceptive and misleading" in a suit filed against the brand's parent company, Eden Creamery, in Brooklyn federal court Thursday, the Post reported.

Berger's lawsuit claimed he thought he was getting at least the 10 percent of milk fat required of a regular ice cream when he bought Halo Top - whose flavors only have 5 percent or less - because its legally required "light ice cream" label was hidden, according to the news outlet.

When he dug into the $6.99 pint, all he found was low-calorie disappointment that was harder and less creamy than the regular ice cream he'd been expecting.

"Reasonable consumers are not aware they are purchasing a 'light ice cream' product," the suit says. "(He) would not have purchased the products or paid as much if the true facts had been known."

Berger said that while the "light ice cream" label was on the container, it was small and obscure in comparison to other diet ice cream brands, the Post reported.

His lawsuit even want so far as to single out the company's name, "Halo," claiming it makes buyers think of yellow, "a color associated with butter and cream," according to the Post.

Halo Top declined to comment on the lawsuit.

(Lead Image: Halo Top ice cream in sea salt caramel flavor. Photo via Shutterstock)