When folks who have been making candy for 108 years say it's a bad idea to put an additive derived from algae or fish oil into chocolate bars, many of us would take their word for it. But not everyone, apparently.

Nashville's Standard Candy Co., famous as the maker of Goo Goo Clusters, has filed suit against a former client whose products Standard produced on a private-label basis. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Nashville's U.S. District Court, claims that NutraBella Inc., based in Palo Alto, Calif., fired Standard and refused to pay more than $90,000 it owes, following a dispute over a batch of candy that came out tasting fishy.

Standard's argument, in essence: "We told you so."

The complaint, available at this link, says Standard was producing snack bars last year for NutraBella, which specializes in foods for pregnant women, when NutraBella asked it to start including docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, in the formula. Standard immediately raised a red flag.

DHA can be synthesized from either fish oil or a certain type of algae. It is thought to have special nutritional benefits for expectant mothers and various food producers have looked for ways to add it as a supplement. But Standard knew it would not be easy to do so.

The company warned that "its experience with the use of DHA was negative, and that even many large international brands with extensive testing and development capabilities had not been able to successfully introduce DHA into their products," the lawsuit states. "When using DHA, even when the protocol and process are strictly followed, the product can be unsalable because of reaction caused by the difficult properties of DHA."

NutraBella would not take "no" for an answer, however, according to the filing, and it furnished a new recipe including DHA for Standard to follow, even though Standard "strongly cautioned" against the idea.

Sure enough, a batch produced last June from the new formula came out with a distinctly piscine flavor. "Regardless of the care, attention, skill, or process used, a product manufactured with DHA can end up tasting 'fishy,'" Standard argues.

NutraBella took responsibility for the results and paid for the unsaleable product, the lawsuit says, but then changed its position at the end of the year. The Californians refused to pay a later $40,000 invoice on the grounds that Standard owed it for the bad batch in June, and they terminated their relationship with Standard while it was still holding more than $50,000 worth of ingredients that it cannot use in other products (unless, say, the Japanese develop a taste for sushi-flavored Goo Goos).

Standard seeks damages of $92,000, plus interest. Filing the case on its behalf were Rhea Bucy, Scott Derrick and Tom Russell of Gullett Sanford Robinson & Martin.

Attempts in recent days to reach a spokesperson for NutraBella have been unsuccessful.