Splenda Maker Says Peet’s Uses Chinese Alternative Sweetener (1)

The makers of Splenda have accused Peet’s Coffee Inc. of telling consumers it carries the “American-made” sweetener while serving them an alternative “manufactured in the People’s Republic of China.”

Heartland Consumer Products LLC said that a 2022 investigation demonstrated that employees at 24 Peet’s locations in some way represented to private investigators that it provided Splenda when they didn’t, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The complaint said a 2023 investigation replicated these results.

Heartland said that the investigations showed “indisputable, unequivocal evidence of intentional misrepresentation” and as ...