Dr Pepper, Mott’s Want Applesauce Pesticide Residue Suit Tossed

No reasonable consumer thinks the term “natural” on applesauce and apple juice means that they are “completely free from trace pesticides down to the molecular level,” Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. and unit Mott’s LLP told a federal court in California, seeking dismissal of a would-be class suit.

Hawyuan Yu alleged the labeling was deceptive because certain products contain residue of acetamiprid, a synthetic insecticide that reasonable consumers wouldn’t expect to find in “natural” foods.

But Yu relies on survey evidence “to try to manufacture a claim where none exists,” the companies said in a filing to the U.S. District ...