Unwell Beverages class action alleges drinks falsely marketed as having no artificial flavors

A California woman filed a class action lawsuit on July 22, 2026, accusing Unwell Products LLC, the beverage company co-founded by podcaster Alex Cooper, of falsely marketing its full line of drinks as free of artificial flavors.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the complaint alleges that two synthetic ingredients found in every Unwell Beverages product directly contradict the brand's most prominent marketing claim.

Plaintiff Caitlin Darr, a California resident, says she purchased the brand's Strawberry Hydration Focus Drink from a Target store in or around June 2025, believing the drink was made without artificial flavors.

According to the complaint, she also bought Strawberry Hydration Focus Sticks and other products from the line over the prior two years.

Unwell Products

Unwell Products was co-founded by Alex Cooper, the host of "Call Her Daddy," one of the most widely listened-to podcasts in the country. Cooper's beverage brand operates as part of her broader Unwell Network media company.

The product line launched in December 2024 under the name Unwell Hydration before the company later rebranded the full lineup as Unwell Beverages. Products are manufactured and marketed through a partnership with Nestle USA Inc. and are sold at major national retailers including Target, Walmart, Amazon and Ralphs.

The lineup spans four product categories: Hydration Drinks, Protein Drinks, Energy Drinks and Hydration Sticks. The beverages reach consumers across the country through those major retail channels, giving the brand substantial national reach.

The company promoted its products through a wide range of channels, according to the complaint. Marketing claims appear on product labels, the company's website at drinkunwell.com, Amazon product listings, Target and Walmart pages, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms.

The core message across all of those channels, the lawsuit alleges, was that the drinks contain "No Artificial Flavors" and are "Flavored with Other Natural Flavors." Additional phrases used throughout the marketing campaign, according to the complaint, include "flavors and colors from only natural sources," "Juicy Flavors" and "zero fake vibes."

Cooper personally amplified these claims, according to the lawsuit. The complaint states that she narrated Instagram content telling her followers the drinks contained "No Artificial Flavors," lending the credibility of her well-known personal brand to those product promises.

Alleged labeling violations

The lawsuit's central claim is on two common food and beverage ingredients: citric acid and sodium citrate. The complaint alleges that both are listed on the ingredient label of every product in the Unwell Beverages line, and that both function as artificial flavoring agents. That, the lawsuit argues, directly contradicts the brand's repeated "no artificial flavors" claims.

Citric acid is the substance most closely associated with the tart, sour taste in fruit-flavored drinks and foods. While its name implies an origin in citrus fruits, the complaint alleges that roughly 90% to 99% of all commercial citric acid is not actually derived from citrus. Instead, the lawsuit states, it is produced through industrial fermentation using a mutant strain of black mold known as _Aspergillus niger_.

The complaint cites the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support that claim. The USDA stated as early as 1995 that naturally derived citric acid, obtained by extracting it from citrus juice, is "no longer commercially available." The agency acknowledged again in 2015 that whether purifying citric acid from citrus fruit is even economically possible "remains unknown."

Given that Unwell Beverages distributes its products through some of the country's largest retailers, the complaint argues it would be commercially infeasible for the company to source genuinely natural citric acid.

Sodium citrate, the second ingredient under scrutiny, is described in the complaint as a chemically produced substance made by neutralizing citric acid with sodium hydroxide or sodium carbonate. The USDA classifies sodium citrate as a nonagricultural synthetic substance under federal regulations at 7 C.F.R. § 205.605(b).

The agency describes the ingredient as being "chiefly used as a food additive, usually for flavoring," noting that it gives club soda its sour and salty character and contributes to the tart taste in lemon-lime soft drinks. By including sodium citrate in its products while advertising "no artificial flavors," the complaint alleges, the company established a second and independent basis for the alleged misrepresentation.

The Unwell Beverages case arrives as citric acid labeling has emerged as a contested issue in the courts. A class action filed against Gatorade maker PepsiCo in May 2026 raised nearly identical allegations, claiming that manufactured citric acid makes the brand's "no artificial flavors" labels false and misleading.

What this means for Unwell Beverages customers

Darr's complaint proposes two groups of potential class members. The first is a Nationwide Class covering all U.S. residents who purchased any Unwell Beverages product. The second is a California Subclass limited to buyers within the state.

The case invokes the Class Action Fairness Act, known as CAFA, for federal jurisdiction, citing more than 100 potential class members and more than $5 million at stake.

The argument is that consumers paid more for Unwell Beverages products than they would have had they known the drinks contained artificial flavoring agents. The complaint cites consumer research finding that 81% of shoppers say it is important to buy so-called "clean label" products. A separate study cited in the lawsuit found that 54% of U.S. consumers identify "no artificial ingredients" as one of the most important features of a clean label product.

The complaint argues that a meaningful segment of buyers was directly influenced by the brand's natural-flavor claims when making purchasing decisions.

Before filing the case, Darr took a legally required step under California law. The California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, known as the CLRA, is a state statute that protects shoppers from unfair or deceptive business practices. It requires a consumer to send the company a formal written demand and allow the company time to respond before filing a lawsuit. The complaint states that Darr sent that demand letter to Unwell Products LLC by certified mail on May 29, 2026.

According to the complaint, the company did not fully correct the alleged problem within the 30 days required under the law, and Darr filed the lawsuit the following month.

The complaint asks the court to award compensatory and actual damages, restitution, punitive damages, injunctive relief requiring the company to stop the allegedly false marketing, declaratory relief, attorneys' fees and costs, and pre- and post-judgment interest.