March 28, 2012 – Taiyo International, Inc. and Blue California announced today that the parties have settled all claims and counterclaims in a false advertising lawsuit.
Taiyo is a supplier of nutritional food products based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Blue California is a manufacturer of botanical extracts and specialty ingredients located in Rancho Santa Margarita, California.
L-theanine is an amino acid that is found naturally in green tea leaves, but which also can be produced through chemical synthesis and fermentation. Taiyo produces an L-theanine product, known as Suntheanine®, which is produced via a patented fermentation process, and is not an extract of green tea. Blue California produces an L-theanine product known as L-TeaActive™, produced through a proprietary enzyme-assisted manufacturing process that uses green tea leaves as one of the starting materials. Blue California denied the claims and made changes in its advertising of its L-theanine product, known as L-Tea Active™ and agreed not to use the phrase “naturally derived from green tea,” or any similar phrase in future advertising.
All claims in the lawsuit have now been settled. Neither Blue California nor Taiyo admits any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The remaining terms of the parties’ agreement are confidential.