CONSUMER ALERT: The NuManna company, since 2017, has continued to falsely and fraudulently claim that their organic storable food products known as "Organic Family Pack" are "Health Ranger Approved" and are being tested for heavy metals and pesticides by the "Natural News" labs. In truth, no NuManna products have been tested by the Health Ranger or Natural News since 2016, even though such claims are prominently featured throughout NuManna's present-day marketing materials, website, product labels, Amazon listings and PDF documents (see examples below).
NuManna cut off the Health Ranger royalties in 2017, refused to provide product samples for lab testing, yet continued to fraudulently use the "Heavy Metals Tested" label claims and "Health Ranger Approved" claims for the next five years, while deliberately ignoring repeated requests by the Health Ranger and Natural News to remove such claims from their website and their labels.
This was done, we believe, in order for NuManna to profit from deceptive marketing and advertising practices that exploited the food science reputation of Natural News and the Health Ranger to intentionally deceive customers for more than five years.
In addition NuManna has failed to pay commissions and affiliate fees to numerous retail distributors of its products. We have personally spoken with four distributors who say they were owed money that NuManna refused to pay.
The deception must stop. After years of demanding corrections and being ignored by NuManna, we are going public with the full story, and we are filing our claims and evidence with the FTC, DOJ, the AG of Missouri and the USDA. (Updated with note about CCOF, see below.)
Hear the full podcast here:
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- The NuManna company fasified heavy metals testing claims on their product
- Fraudulently claimed Natural News was testing products for pesticides and metals
- In truth, NO samples were sent for testing since early 2017
- NuManna was fully aware of their deception and they did it deliberately
- NuManna refused to remove Natural News / Health Ranger testing logos and endorsements
- NuManna accused by multiple distributors of failing to pay owed affiliate fees
- NuManna violated agreements and has failed to pay owed royalties
- NuManna's false claims and deceptive marketing practices may be CRIMINAL violations
- NuManna hides behind the shield of being "Christian"
- Is NuManna's organic CCOF certification claim even real?
- Health Ranger preparing to file evidence with FTC, DOJ and AG of Missouri
- Customers encouraged to demand refunds from NuManna
FACTS:
The NuManna company sells an organic family pack of storable food labeled the "Organic Family Pack." (1)
NuManna and the Health Ranger signed an agreement on June 6 of 2016, in which the two partners would, "work together to develop a line of long term organic food storage products that are co-branded and co-promoted." (2)
As part of this agreement, NuManna agreed that Natural News would conduct routine, repeated testing of its ingredients in order to ensure the cleanliness of its final products being sold to customers. Per the agreement, NuManna agreed to "send at least 1 lb. of each formulation to [NaturalNews] no less than 30 days prior to production date." The agreement also specified that NuManna would produce samples for the testing of "each production run" as follows:
Each Production Run: Unless agreed otherwise, NuManna shall submit a sample from each production run of the Products to be tested by [NaturalNews] no less than 15 days prior to shipment date.
FACT: In reality, NuManna never provided even a single sample for any subsequent production run beyond the original formulation testing in 2016.
Fact: NuManna has sold many millions of dollars worth of Organic Family Pack products since 2017, through a network of retailers and also via Amazon.com (3). We confirmed today with one of NuManna's retailers that the false claims labels are still being used in their retail distribution channel. From the front label of their product:
Zoomed in:
No testing of NuManna products since late 2016
No testing by Natural News was conducted on any NuManna product from early 2017 to the present day. Yet NuManna continued to falsely claim such testing was being conducted in its various labeling, marketing materials, website, PDFs and other similar materials (see exhibits below).
Over the last 24 hours, as NuManna became aware that Natural News was about to publish this story, NuManna has been furiously scrubbing its website of all such claims. This was only done as a last minute "we've been caught" panic, but we had already archived all the relevant web pages, graphics, etc.
As background, the NuManna family pack product was originally formulated by NuManna with the help of Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, in 2016, where our team conducted heavy metals testing of the raw materials in 2016 and advised NuManna on which offensive or questionable ingredients to remove from their product in order to make it organic-friendly. In exchange for this, it was agreed at the time that:
- NuManna would pay the Health Ranger a royalty on all sales of the product, in exchange for continued testing and co-promotion.
- That NuManna would provide NaturalNews would samples for EACH production lot and would wait for NaturalNews testing approval before releasing such lots to the public.
- That Natural News would retain the right to approve all marketing materials used by NuManna in relation to the products.
NuManna violated all three provisions of this agreement, cut off communication with the Health Ranger and Natural News, claimed to have suffered an "accounting emergency" and refused to respond to repeated requests to remove false claims from their labeling and marketing materials over the subsequent five years.
NuManna is a very dishonest company run by extremely dishonest people. Their names are Daniel Brigman (the owner) and Todd Fairbourne, the operations manager. More about these two later.
Lab testing artwork was fraudulently used without our permission, to mislead customers for five years
The artwork used by NuManna to claim "Heavy Metals Tested" and "Pesticide Tested" and "Non-GMO" was created and produced by Natural News, and provided based on strict conditions. From the 2016 contract:
[NaturalNews] shall provide NuManna with logo artwork for “Low Heavy Metals Verified”; “Health Ranger Approved”; “Glyphosate Tested”; and “Microbiology Tested.” Numanna will only continue placing these logo artworks onto their marketing materials and products when the most recent and current production lot/batch is lab tested/approved by [NaturalNews].
Yet for five years following this, NuManna broke the terms of the contract, failed to provide raw materials samples for testing, failed to submit final products for testing, yet continued to use the provided marketing materials and claims even though NuManna knew such claims were false and misleading to customers.
Even to this day -- as of yesterday -- NuManna is still using "Health Ranger Approved" claims in its marketing materials, while also claiming "Heavy Metals Approved" via the Natural News labs. Here are some examples of the false claims continuing to be used from 2017 through October of 2022:
On the NuManna Family Pack product label:
All these label badges were designed by us, and provided to NuManna contingent upon their continued testing and approval by us. NuManna violated that and never pursued any additional testing, while also cutting us off from any subsequent royalty payments.
From the NuManna product catalog PDF:
From the NuManna website home page:
From the NuManna "Organic Family Pack" product page:
The NuManna product comparison chart that continues to claim "Health Ranger Approved":
Amazon.com NuManna Organic Family Pack product listing, carrying the same false claims found elsewhere on NuManna's marketing materials:
Note the use of "Health Ranger Approved" on the Amazon.com listing page, above. Once again, this was used fraudulently, dishonestly, repeatedly and maliciously, to deceive Amazon customers and to profit from deception.
For years, we tried to get them to stop, and they refused
What follows are excerpts from a series of email exchanges with NuManna and its principals, where we repeatedly demanded they stop using our logos, endorsements and lab testing badges. Over and over again, NuManna refused to take any action. Finally, in late 2021, they decided to take action to remove these items. So they temporarily removed them and then began using them again a few weeks later, proving they were deliberate in their actions and that they were fully aware of the deception in which they were engaged. (This eliminates the "We didn't know" excuse, which holds no water.)
October 9, 2018:
Hi Daniel-
My name is ------- and I work for Mike Adams, at NaturalNews and the Health Ranger store. I am reaching out today about the misuse of our logo on your products. Please consider this our final request to remove any/all 'Health Ranger Approved' seals/logos off product labels. Please notify your affiliates to update any product images on their sites as well to only include product photos without our logo. I am attaching an image of what I am referring to.
Second, please remove any/all verbiage about our support, backing and lab testing immediately from you websites. You will also need to notify any affiliate websites.
We cut ties a year ago and that has been ample time to remove this information. We have not tested your products in this time, therefore, this information is no longer truthful nor valid. I am hoping this can be resolved this quickly. I appreciate your support. Thank you.
There was no action on our repeated requests until October of 2021:
Oct 1, 2021:
Hi there-
This is ---------- and I work for Mike Adams, the Health Ranger. I have reached out 2 times before today asking for our Health Ranger logo to be removed from the storage buckets. I am hoping if I ask nicely one more time, you will follow up with our request to remove our name from your site, labels, etc. If I do not hear back, we will be forced to obtain our attorney and take matters through the legal route... please let me know you received this. Thank you.
October 2, 2021:
Thanks for reaching out. I will [let] Dan (owner) and production know to get the labels redone. It was my understanding they had. But, I will follow up asap
Thanks
Todd
NuManna
October 4, 2021:
Thanks for the heads up. We will start working on our website asap. As for Amazon, I will let our dealers that are on Amazon to address the photos they are using asap.
I want you to know that I looked into our labels and our labels have been changed. I have attached one of our labels to show you.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Thanks
Todd
Note that even in October of 2022, NuManna was still using the fraudulent labels with the false claims. The email above proves that Todd was fully aware of the issue, and that he lied to Natural News about changing labels, yet continued to use the labels with the false claims.
The emails shown here are not the full extent of the communications between Natural News and NuManna, but they demonstrate several key things:
- That Natural News made repeated requests for the badges, logos and endorsements to be removed.
- That NuManna's top principals were aware of the issues we raised.
- That NuManna deceptively promised to stop using the testing claims and endorsement claims, even though they deliberately continued to use them to deceive their customers.
Did you purchase NuManna products based on false claims of heavy metals testing, pesticide testing and "Health Ranger Approved" status?
If you purchased a NuManna product based, in whole or in part, on the false claim that such products were "Heavy Metals Tested" or "Pesticide Tested" via the Natural News ICP-MS lab, or that such products were "Health Ranger Approved," then you were deceived.
We believe you are owed a refund.
The heavy metals status of such products cannot be affirmed by us, nor can the pesticide status be affirmed, since we conducted no testing on these products sold from 2017 - 2022, and since no samples were even provided to us for such testing.
Thus, the NuManna Organic Family Pack products you have in your possession may potentially be contaminated with heavy metals and pesticides despite being claimed "organic," since organic certification requires no heavy metals testing and no pesticide testing.
Note that based on our current information, we do not believe that NuManna retailers / distributors had knowledge of the facts presented in this article, so it would be unfair to assume they were aware of these issues when they represented NuManna products. For this reason, please do not badger, condemn or harass NuManna resellers or retail distributors. They are likely just as surprised at reading this article as you are. Although they unknowingly profited from NuManna's deception, they were likely not complicit in the scheme, and morally speaking, they should be granted the assumption of "plausible deniability" of any foreknowledge of this situation.
Actions you can take to hold NuManna accountable for their years of deception and fraud
Here are some actions you can take to protect yourself from NuManna's false advertising practices and to seek a resolution:
1) File a complaint with the FTC at this link:
2) Contact NuManna and demand a refund:
Phone: 1-888-597-0775
https://numanna.com/contact-us/
3) UPDATE: This action item has been removed based on a response from CCOF after Natural News contacted them to inquire about the status of the organic certification of NuManna-branded products. CCOF responded and told us there are NuManna-branded products which are certified by CCOF, but that for further details we would need to acquire organic certification details from NuManna itself. So far, NuManna has not publicly produced its organic certification details, but they say they are going to post those details publicly.
- Note that organic certification requires NO lab testing whatsoever. "Organic" doesn't mean anything is tested for heavy metals, GMOs or pesticides. The USDA organic certification system is a paperwork audit of inputs onto food or farms. No lab testing whatsoever is carried out during organic certification of end products. That's why pesticide and heavy metals testing must be conducted in addition to organic certification.
4) Alert your local newspapers to this survival food deception and point them to this story. You can also find this story on Food.news at the following link: https://www.food.news/2022-10-25-numanna-exposed-five-years-of-false-claims-fraud-misleading-metals-testing-claims.html
5) Contact the Attorney General's office in Missouri to file a complaint:
https://ago.mo.gov/app/consumercomplaint
6) File a complaint with the Department of Justice at your state level. Every state has a Dept. of Justice. Just search for "Department of Justice [state] file consumer complaint" to find the website for your state.
7) Repost this story on your own blog. You may repost this story freely, and please give credit to NaturalNews.com and the Food.news link for this story:
8) File a complaint with the FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinators in your state. You can find the list at this link.
9) Contact us if you have knowledge of other schemes or fraud issues in which you believe NuManna may have engaged. We have set up a special Protonmail.com email address for this purpose. If you send from your own protonmail.com account, this email will be encrypted end to end:
You may also use the above email if you are an attorney and you are looking to file a class action lawsuit against NuManna. After vetting your intentions and law firm, we will provide documentation for your case.
Seeking redress
We have the proof that NuManna fraudulently, deceptively marketed products to its customers and did so knowingly for many years.
We demand that NuManna take the following actions:
1) HALT all use of Natural News logos, claim, "Health Ranger Approved" claims, and any related endorsements, across all NuManna marketing materials, including website, product labeling, PDFs, trade show materials, interviews, graphics, printed materials, emails and all forms of electronic materials.
2) Issue a public letter of apology to the Health Ranger, Natural News and all NuManna customers for using fraudulent, misleading claims over these last five years and for deceiving their own customer base over the use of these label claims which NuManna knew to be false and misleading.
3) Immediately issue a full refund or store credit (customer's choice) to ALL customers who purchased Organic Family Pack products from June of 2017 - present.
4) Place a prominent public statement on their home page, admitting to this five-year deception they have carried out, apologizing to their customers and to Natural News, and providing a clickable link by which customers can receive a full refund for relevant purchases. Keep this statement in place for one full year, above the fold on the NuManna home page.
5) Provide documented PROOF of organic status of all production lots of their products over the last five years so that customers can see that NuManna wasn't deceiving them about "organic" claims in addition to other claims. Provide proof of an organic certifier audit of your raw materials and manufacturing facility within the last year.
Have you had a bad business experience with NuManna? Contact us
Reach us about this story at:
Legal issues
To NuManna's attorneys: If you decide to sue this publisher for telling the truth in this article, we will counter-sue, we will organize a class action lawsuit among your customers, we will seek discovery of all your financial records, organic batch production records and product testing records, and we expose additional business practices of yours to the world.
We cannot be "settled" into silence. We do not want your money. We want the truth to finally be known, and we want all the people you have deceived to finally learn the details of how exactly they have been lied to while you gained dishonest profits.
For the record, for any government regulators interested in pursuing prosecutions of NuManna, I will gladly testify under oath to all the facts presented in this article, I will sit for depositions, and we will provide original artwork files, contracts, emails, phone call logs and other details to participate in any investigation of NuManna's business practices.
A copy of this article, with supporting evidence, is being hard copy mailed to the Attorney General of Missouri and several other states.
Citations:
(1) https://numanna.com/product/organic-family-pack/
(2) June 6, 2016 contract signed by Daniel Brigman and Mike Adams
(3) https://www.amazon.com/NuManna-Servings-Emergency-Survival-Separate/dp/B01MTSWUE4/
UPDATED: 10/26 This story has been updated to reflect the response from CCOF that confirms NuManna's organic certification. NuManna has stated they will publicly post their organic certificates. This is still pending.
Please contact us for more information.