Why You Probably Shouldn't Worry About That LaCroix Lawsuit

In an upsetting announcement for devotees of LaCroix sparking water (guilty), a woman has filed a class-action lawsuit against the beverage's parent company, alleging that "the sparkling water advertised as 'all natural' includes an ingredient used in cockroach insecticide as well as other artificial ingredients," says CBS Philadelphia.

According to the LaCroix website, the various beverages' "flavors are derived from the natural essence oils extracted from the named fruit used in each of our LaCroix flavors. There are no sugars or artificial ingredients contained in, nor added to, these extracted flavors." But a statement from Beaumont Costales, the law firm representing plaintiff Lenora Rice, says that "Testing reveals that LaCroix contains a number of artificial ingredients, including linalool, which is used in cockroach insecticide."

Fortunately, Popular Science has chimed in on this debate, stating, "The 'all-natural' label on your LaCroix is meaningless, but that doesn't mean the seltzer is bad for you." While your LaCroix can only lists two ingredients—sparkling water and natural flavors—PS still calls the lawsuit a "stretch, working on the ambiguous nature of how the FDA distinguishes natural chemicals from synthetic ones, and a product of alarmist, chemophobic ideas about what we put in our foods." PS says that the three chemicals listed as present in LaCroix in the lawsuit—limonene, linalool, and linalool propionate—don't exactly qualify as synthetic and are not as dangerous as the lawsuit suggests. Because we love LaCroix, we're sticking with Popular Science when it says, "LaCroix drinkers have little to fear"; if you want even more non-chemophobe info, check out PS today.