This recipe is a giant dill.
A Boston-based pickle company is suing a rival in Recent Jersey, claiming it stole a 100-year-old recipe to make products sold at Whole Foods.
Grillo’s Pickles has filed its second lawsuit against Patriot Pickle products sold under the Whole Foods 365 label. The 2 were partners between 2012 and 2021 until they’d a falling out, WCVB reported.
The corporate accused Patriot Pickle of using its proprietary recipe in its products sold nationwide at the favored supermarket chain.
“Patriot Pickle is attempting to profit off of Grillo’s 100-year-old family recipe and our trade secrets,” company President Adam Kaufman said in a press release.
“It’s an enormous violation of trust and a disappointment that after nearly a decade of partnership, our former co-packer, Patriot Pickle, has violated our agreements and is producing a virtually equivalent line of pickles for one in all our biggest retailers, threatening to permanently damage our business.”
The corporate alleges that Patriot Pickle (pictured) was making false claims about its pickles that allowed Patriots’ Wahlberg-brand pickles to compete with their bread and butter pickles.Patriot Pickle/Facebook
Patriot Pickle’s introduced its 365 product at a cheaper price at Whole Foods — where Grillo’s Pickles are also sold — in the course of the highest-grossing time of yr for pickle sales, threatening the Boston pickle maker’s sales, in keeping with the lawsuit.
“The filing points to Patriot Pickle’s access to Grillo’s proprietary recipes and equipment, use of equivalent ingredients, and organic acid profile tests as proof of Patriot’s use and disclosure of Grillo’s trade secrets, in violation of the Defend Trade Secrets Act, the Florida Uniform Trade Secrets Act, and contracts between Grillo’s and Patriot,” the corporate said.
Grillo’s first lawsuit, filed in January, alleged that Patriot was making false claims about its pickles that allowed Patriots’ Wahlberg-brand pickles to compete with their bread and butter pickles.
Grillo’s Pickles began in 2008 with an old family recipe that owner, Travis Grillo, had sold from a hand-built wood pickle cart at events in and around Boston, in keeping with WCVB.
The business was purchased in 2021 by California-based King’s Hawaiian Holding Co. Inc.
