Public-interest group Cornucopia Institute has filed a lawsuit against Tom Vilsack in his capacity as Secretary of Agriculture alleging that he and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) violated the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 by appointing “unqualified individuals” to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), which develops a list of synthetic substances allowed in the production of organic food, the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances. Cornucopia Inst. v. Vilsack, No. 16-0246 (W.D. Wis., filed April 18, 2016). Federal law requires the composition of the NOSB to be “balanced and independent,” Cornucopia argues, but USDA “inappropriately influenced” the board in a number of ways, including (i) disbanding its Policy Development Subcommittee, (ii) allowing the self-appointment of the board’s co-chairperson, and (iii) removing the board’s ability to set its own work plan. “USDA’s unlawful meddling with the composition and rules governing the NOSB has created a NOSB hostile…
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A Florida federal court has denied Chipotle’s motion to dismiss a putative class action alleging the company misrepresents its food as free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) despite selling meat produced from animals fed GMOs. Reilly v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., No. 15-23425 (S.D. Fla., order entered April 20, 2016). Chipotle argued that the plaintiff had no standing to sue because she did not specify which products she purchased; the court found she had sufficiently pleaded her claims to support standing for her consumer-protection claims, but not her request for an injunction. Chipotle also challenged the plaintiff’s understanding of “non-GMO” as “nonsensical,” but the “reasonableness of her definition, upon which her interpretation of Chipotle’s advertisements is based, is a question better decided upon examination of the evidence,” the court held. Accordingly, it granted Chipotle’s motion to dismiss the request for injunctive relief but denied it as to the rest of…
An Oregon federal court has dismissed a lawsuit alleging Gerber’s Graduates® Puffs is mislabeled because its packaging displays fruits and vegetables not contained in the product. Henry v. Gerber Prods. Co., No. 15-2201 (D. Ore., order entered April 18, 2016). The court first denied the plaintiff’s request to remand the case to state court, then turned to Gerber’s motion to dismiss the claims based on preemption by the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Gerber argued that U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations allow the company to provide visual depictions of the product’s “‛characterizing flavor,’ even if the product does not actually contain any of the depicted fruit, or indeed any fruit at all.” The court agreed, finding that the law is “clear,” even if the “wisdom of the FDA’s regulations on this topic is a different question for a different day.” The court dismissed the case but granted…
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has revived a data breach lawsuit against P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc., finding that the two plaintiffs have standing to sue despite eating at a restaurant apparently not linked to the breach. Lewert v. P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc., No. 14-3700 (7th Cir., order entered April 14, 2016). Additional details about the breach appear in Issue 526 of this Update. The plaintiffs ate at an Illinois location of P.F. Chang’s two months before the company announced its payment system had been hacked, revealing personal information and credit card numbers. One plaintiff noticed fraudulent charges on his card and purchased credit-monitoring services, while the other alleged that he spent time and effort monitoring his card statements and credit report. Each brought separate lawsuits, which were later consolidated then dismissed for lack of standing. Following its announcement about the data breach, P.F. Chang’s identified 33 restaurants…
France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’État, has reportedly invalidated a 2014 decree banning Monsanto’s MON810 maize, a genetically modified organism (GMO), because the decree did not demonstrate that the maize would cause serious health or environmental risks, a standard determined by EU rules. The ruling will not allow GMO maize to be cultivated in the country; in 2015, an EU directive allowed member nations to prohibit GMO crops, and France passed legislation complying with the directive’s standards. The later law bans cultivation of all GMO maize in France. The French maize seed federation sought to appeal the earlier rule despite the symbolic nature of the action to argue that the ban was not based on sound science. “It was more a matter of principle that we conduct this appeal to show there was no scientific basis to the ban,” the organization’s managing director told Reuters. “In concrete terms, it…
Healthy Boulder Kids has submitted to the city of Boulder, Colorado, a draft initiative that would impose on distributors a 2-cent per ounce excise tax on beverages that contain at least 5 grams of sweeteners per 12 fluid ounces. Pending review and approval by the city clerk, the public health coalition would then have until June 28, 2016, to collect the requisite number of signatures to get the measure on the November ballot. Revenue from the proposed tax would reportedly be directed to health and nutrition programs aimed especially at low-income residents of the Boulder community. See Boulder Daily Camera, April 21, 2016. Issue 601
A study reevaluating “the traditional diet-heart hypothesis” concludes that replacing dietary saturated fat with vegetable oils lowers serum cholesterol but does not reduce the risk of death from coronary heart disease or other causes. Christopher Ramsden, et al., “Re-evaluation of the traditional diet-heart hypothesis: analysis of recovered data from Minnesota Coronary Experiment (1968-73),” BMJ, April 2016. Using previously unpublished data from the Minnesota Coronary Experiment (MCE)—“a double blind randomized controlled trial designed to test whether replacement of saturated fat with vegetable oil rich in linoleic acid reduces coronary heart disease and death by lowering serum cholesterol”—researchers examined data on diet, serum cholesterol and health outcomes for 9,423 women and men ages 20 to 97 years. Their results evidently showed that substituting saturated fat with linoleic acid showed no benefits for coronary atherosclerosis or myocardial infarcts, even though participants in the dietary intervention group exhibited a significant reduction in serum cholesterol…
Ganeden Biotech Inc. has filed a lawsuit against American Brewing Co., Inc. and its 2015 acquisition, B&R Liquid Adventure, alleging the companies infringe its patents on a particular strain of probiotic bacteria through the marketing and sale of their búcha® beverage. Ganeden Biotech, Inc. v. Am. Brewing Co., Inc., No. 16-0876 (N.D. Ohio, filed April 13, 2016). Ganeden asserts that it holds a patent on a specific GBI-30 strain of Bacillus coagulans as used in tea and another patent on the strain as used in all other products. B&R began selling búcha® in 2013 and lists the GBI-30 strain as an ingredient, according to the complaint. “Because Ganeden holds a patent on GBI-30 and is the legitimate source of GBI-30, Ganeden believes that Defendants’ products likely contained Bacillus coagulans (which Defendants could have obtained elsewhere) but not always the GBI-30 strain as labeled,” the biotech company argues. For allegations of patent infringement and unfair…
A consumer has filed a putative class action alleging Outernational Brands, Inc. mislabels its Vivaloe aloe-vera beverages as “All Natural” and preservative-free even though the products contain citric acid. Chen v. Outernational Brands, Inc., No. 16-1634 (E.D.N.Y., filed April 4, 2016). “The term ‘All Natural’ only applies to those products that contain no non-natural or synthetic ingredients and consist entirely of ingredients that are only minimally processed,” the complaint asserts. The plaintiff argues that the presence of citric acid, “which is not extracted from citric fruits but industrially synthesized via complex chemical synthetic routes and thus cannot be considered ‘minimally processed,’” precludes Outernational from labeling Vivaloe as “All Natural” or free of preservatives. The complaint admits the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not defined “natural,” but argues “there is no reasonable definition of ‘All Natural’ that includes ingredients that, even if sourced from ‘nature,’ are subjected to extensive transformative…
A putative class action against Melitta USA Inc. alleges the company’s coffee product packaging fails to distinguish between “natural and/or artificial flavor” per federal regulations. Decerbo v. Melitta USA Inc., No. 16-0850 (M.D. Fla., filed April 11, 2016). The plaintiff argues that under U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules, food manufacturers must “accurately identify or describe, in as simple and direct terms as possible, the basic nature of the food and its characterizing properties or ingredients,” including whether a characterizing flavor is natural or artificial. However, “‘Hazelnut Crème’ is not flavored with hazelnuts, there is no vanilla in ‘French Vanilla,’ and ‘Pumpkin Spice’ flavor contains neither nutmeg nor cinnamon, or pumpkin or any customary pumpkin spice either, as these Products’ labels would explicitly lead a consumer to conclude,” the complaint argues. The plaintiff further notes that other coffee-product manufacturers “have responsibly decided to correctly label their products,” purportedly giving the…
