A University of California, San Diego, study has reportedly claimed that the brains of obese children “literally light up differently when tasting sugar,” according to a December 11, 2014, press release. Kerri Boutelle, et al., “Increased brain response to appetitive tastes in the insula and amygdala in obese compared to healthy weight children when sated,” International Journal of Obesity, December 2014. Researchers apparently scanned the brains of 10 obese and 13 healthy weight children “while they tasted one-fifth of a teaspoon of water mixed with sucrose (table sugar).” The results evidently showed that the obese children “had heightened activity in the insular cortex and amygdala, regions of the brain involved in perception, emotion, awareness, taste, motivation and reward.” As the lead author explained, “The take-home message is that obese children, compared to healthy weight children, have enhanced responses in their brain to sugar. That we can detect these differences in…
Category Archives Issue 549
A consumer has filed a putative class action in Florida federal court alleging that LesserEvil LLC falsely advertises its Chia Crisps as containing “a significant amount of chia seeds, when, in actuality, the Product is primarily composed of black beans, a less expensive ingredient.” Crane v. LesserEvil LLC, No. 14-62854 (S.D. Fla., filed December 16, 2014). The plaintiff asserts that LesserEvil attempted to capitalize on increasing consumer demand for antioxidant-rich chia seeds by creating a black-bean product with an insignificant amount of the seeds and advertising it as a chia-seed product. She alleges unjust enrichment and a violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act; she seeks class certification, compensatory damages, restitution, an injunction, and attorney’s fees. Issue 549
Three consumers have filed three separate putative class actions against Whole Foods Inc., Wegmans Food Markets Inc. and Acme Markets Inc. in New Jersey state court alleging that the grocery chains falsely represent their bread and bakery products as freshly made in-store. Mladenov v. Whole Foods, docket number unavailable (Super. Ct. N.J., Camden Cty., filed December 16, 2014); Mladenov v. Wegmans Foods Mkts., Inc., docket number unavailable (Super. Ct. N.J., Camden Cty., filed December 16, 2014); Mao v. Acme Mkts., Inc., docket number unavailable (Super. Ct. N.J., Camden Cty., filed December 16, 2014). The complaints allege violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act based on advertisements indicating that the bread and bakery products sold by the three companies were made in-store daily despite being “frozen, delivered to its stores, and then re-baked or partially baked in store,” according to the complaint against Acme. Each plaintiff seeks class certification, injunctive…
Several consumer and environmental groups, including the Center for Food Safety and Center for Environmental Health, have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking declaratory and injunctive relief for EPA’s alleged failure to respond to the groups’ 2008 petition calling for regulation of consumer products containing nano-sized versions of silver. Ctr. for Food Safety v. EPA, No. 14-2131 (D.D.C., filed December 16, 2014). According to the complaint, the 2008 petition requested that EPA classify nano-silver products as pesticides and provided EPA with a legal, policy and scientific blueprint for necessary action. EPA opened a comment period on the matter later that year but allegedly failed to take any further action. The petition also included an index of products that contained nano-silver, including food storage containers, food/produce cleaners, cutlery, cutting boards, and ingestible “health” drink supplements. The groups assert that nanomaterials “create unique human health and environmental risks,…
Hellmann’s producer Unilever has filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in a case alleging that Hampton Creek’s plant-based mayonnaise substitute, “Just Mayo,” could not call itself mayo because it contains no eggs as required by U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards for the product. Conopco Inc. v. Hampton Creek Inc., No. 14-6856 (D.N.J., notice filed December 18, 2014). Unilever filed the complaint in October 2014, arguing that Just Mayo is a misleading brand name because the substance behaves differently than real mayonnaise when used in recipes; the plant-based product can apparently separate into parts rather than binding ingredients together. “Unilever has decided to withdraw its lawsuit against Hampton Creek so that Hampton Creek can address its label directly with industry groups and appropriate regulatory authorities,” said Mike Faherty, Vice President for Foods, Unilever North America, in a statement. “We applaud Hampton Creek’s commitment to innovation and its inspired corporate purpose. We…
A California federal court has granted Blue Diamond’s motion to decertify a statewide class of consumers who alleged that the company’s almond milk product labels were misleading because they cited “evaporated cane juice” on the ingredient list rather than the alleged common name for the substance, sugar. Werdebaugh v. Blue Diamond Growers, No. 12-2724 (N.D. Cal., order entered December 15, 2014). The court had preliminarily certified the class in May 2014 on the condition that the plaintiff could provide a damages model that limited recovery to those injured by the alleged mislabeling. Upon reviewing the proposed model, the court found fundamental flaws with the method of determining damages “because Dr. Capps’ model is incapable of isolating the damages attributable to Defendant’s alleged wrongdoing. Instead, Dr. Capps’ methodology measures the ‘combined effect’ of Blue Diamond’s brand value and Blue Diamond’s use of ‘evaporated cane juice’ and/or ‘All Natural’ on the prices…
A California federal court has granted plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment in a case alleging that Safeway charged a class of consumers more than the prices permitted under the terms of its online service contract when the consumers purchased groceries from the grocer’s website. Rodman v. Safeway, No. 11-3003 (order entered December 10, 2014). Safeway sells groceries via its Safeway.com site, where it requires users to accept its Terms and Conditions upon registration. That agreement includes a provision about prices varying from order to order: “The prices quoted on our web site at the time of your order are estimated prices only. You will be charged the prices quoted for Products you have selected for purchase at the time your order is processed at checkout. The actual order value cannot be determined until the day of delivery because the prices quoted on the Web site are likely to vary either…
A Florida federal court has dismissed a case alleging that Campbell Soup Co. misleadingly labeled its V8 V-Fusion® Pomegranate Blueberry and Acai Mixed Berry products as “100% juice” in a way that implied they contained only the flavoring juices rather than a base mix of fruit and vegetable juices. Bell v. Campbell Soup Co., No. 14-291 (N.D. Fla., order entered December 11, 2014). The plaintiff argued that the label was misleading because the “100% juice” statement appeared so close to the flavor name on the label, but after examining each labeling statement, the court disagreed. “[W]hen a product’s flavor comes from a juice that is not the primary ingredient, the name may include the flavoring juice, without including other juices, so long as the label includes the statement ‘that the named juice is present as a flavoring.’ [T]he flavor—in this instance pomegranate and blueberry—must be ‘followed by the word ‘flavored’ in…
The French Directorate-General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) has released a guidance document detailing the implementation of new rules that ban the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in all food contact materials in their finished state as of January 1, 2015. The second part of a law that first prohibited BPA in products intended for children younger than age 3, the new rules apparently bar the use of BPA in (i) packaging and articles intended to come into contact with food, and (ii) containers and utensils, including kitchen utensils, tableware and dishes. These rules do not apply to industrial materials and equipment used in the production, processing, storage, or transportation of foodstuffs. See DGCCRF Guidance, December 8, 2014. In a related development, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has announced that it has finalized a scientific opinion on BPA. Slated for release in January 2015, the…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed a rule that would allow anyone producing, handling, marketing, or importing certified organic products to be exempt from paying the assessments associated with commodity promotion activities like advertising. The exemption would cover all “organic” and “100 percent organic” products certified under the National Organic Program. The current rule allows the exemption to apply only to those who exclusively produce and market products certified as 100 percent organic, but the proposed rule would broaden application to include all organic products regardless of whether the person or company imports or handles nonorganic products as well. Comments on the proposed rule must be received by January 15, 2015. See Federal Register, December 16, 2014. Issue 549
