The Center for Food Safety (CFS) has submitted a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Office of Food Additive Safety arguing that the sale of "uncooked Impossible Burgers to consumers in grocery stores" is unlawful because FDA "received timely objections to the agency's approval of Impossible Foods' color additive petition." CFS argues that its six objections to FDA's ruling should have automatically stayed the effective date of the rule. The letter describes grocery stores' advertising promising the availability of Impossible Burgers, asserting that "such sales are unlawful until there is a valid color additive regulation in place." The advocacy group concludes by urging FDA to "issue a recall notice to these and other retailers that are currently selling uncooked Impossible Burgers in their grocery stores."
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The University of Connecticut's Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity has released a report on the state of nutrition and marketing for beverages targeted to children. The researchers identified "common practices that may confuse parents about the ingredients and healthfulness of sweetened children's drinks," including the "widespread use of low-calorie sweeteners," the "sugar content and calories" and the serving sizes of "100% juice products" that "contained more than the recommended maximum daily amount of juice for toddlers." The report recommends that "manufacturers should develop and market unsweetened plain waters for children," that media companies with children's programming "should implement nutrition standards that comply with expert recommendations that can be advertised to children in their media" and that retailers should "clearly label children's drinks that contain added sweeteners."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published a set of changes to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances, which documents the synthetic materials allowed or banned in the production and handling of organic agriculture. The amendments include the addition of "elemental sulfur for use as a molluscicide," the addition of "polyoxin D zinc salt to control fungal diseases" and the reclassification of magnesium chloride "from an allowed synthetic to an allowed nonsynthetic ingredient in organic handling." USDA also published a list of proposed changes and will accept comments on the proposal until December 17, 2019. The proposed rule would "add blood meal, made with sodium citrate, to the National List as a soil fertilizer," "add natamycin to the National List to prohibit its use" and "add tamarind seed gum as a non-organic agricultural substance for use in organic handling when organic forms of tamarind seed gum are…
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has reportedly called for action from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to a study purportedly showing that 95% of baby foods contained at least some lead, arsenic, mercury or cadmium content. Schumer reportedly said that consumers "rightfully expect those foods to be undeniably safe, appropriately regulated and nutritiously sustaining" and called for regulators to examine the study and release a public statement on its results.
The parties in a lawsuit alleging Kellogg Sales Co. misrepresented its cereals as healthy have reached an agreement that would require the company to pay $20 million in payments and make marketing changes valued at more than $11 million. Hadley v. Kellogg Sales Co., No. 16-4955 (N.D. Cal., filed October 21, 2019). The lawsuit alleged that Kellogg's Smart Start, Raisin Bran, Krave, Crunchy Nut and Frosted Mini-Wheats cereals, along with its Nutri-Grain bars, were misleadingly marketed as healthy despite containing high levels of sugar. Under the settlement agreement, Kellogg will (i) remove or limit the use of "Heart Health" claims on Smart Start and Raisin Bran; (ii) use "healthy" as an implied nutrient content claim only; (iii) remove "lightly sweetened" from Frosted Mini-Wheats and Smart Start; (iv) refrain from using "No High Fructose Corn Syrup" or an equivalent phrase; and (v) use "wholesome," "nutritious" and "benefits" or equivalent words only…
A consumer has filed a putative class action alleging that Brew Dr. Kombucha LLC markets its products as containing "billions" of "live and active cultures" or "beneficial bacteria, yeasts and organic acids" despite containing "only 50,000" colony forming units. Amos v. Brew Dr. Kombucha LLC, No. 19-1663 (D. Ore., Portland Div., filed October 16, 2019). "Because consumers specifically purchase kombucha products because of their probiotic content, and rely on the amount of probiotics stated on the product labeling when choosing what type and brand of kombucha drink product to purchase, Defendant’s product labels and advertisements were false, misleading, and reasonably likely to deceive the public," the plaintiff argues. For allegations of breach of warranties and unjust enrichment, the plaintiff seeks class certification and damages.
The Environmental Research Center has filed a lawsuit alleging that Manitoba Harvest USA LLC Corp.’s food products contain lead and cadmium levels exceeding the amounts permitted by California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act (Prop. 65). Envtl. Research Ctr. Inc. v. Manitoba Harvest USA LLC Corp., No. RG19038961 (Cal. Super. Ct., Alameda Cty., filed October 15, 2019). The complaint asserts that Manitoba Harvest “has knowingly and intentionally exposed numerous persons to lead and/or cadmium without providing any type of Proposition 65 warning” to “the public, who undoubtedly believe they have been ingesting totally healthy and pure products pursuant to the company’s statements.” The advocacy group seeks civil penalties, injunctive relief and declaratory judgment.
Following the August 2019 dismissal of a lawsuit brought by advocacy groups alleging similar facts, a group of consumers has filed a putative class action alleging that Sanderson Farms Inc. misleads consumers by marketing its chicken as “100% Natural.” Lentz v. Sanderson Farms Inc., No. 19-6570 (N.D. Cal., filed October 11, 2019). The complaint alleges that “Sanderson’s advertising misleads consumers in four ways,” including representations that (i) the chickens “were not given antibiotics or other pharmaceuticals,” (ii) the chickens “were raised in a natural environment,” (iii) “there is no evidence that the use of antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals in poultry contributes to the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria” and (iv) the chicken products “do not contain any antibiotic or pharmaceutical residue.” A previous case brought by two advocacy groups was dismissed because of a lack of standing; the court found that the groups could not show sufficient injury because “they were…
U.K. researchers have published the findings of a comparison of calorie counts on menu items in restaurants that feature labeling of those counts and in restaurants without such labeling. Dolly R.Z. Theis & Jean Adams, "Differences in energy and nutritional content of menu items served by popular UK chain restaurants with versus without voluntary menu labelling: A cross-sectional study," PLOS One, October 16, 2019. The researchers compared offerings from "the 100 most popular UK restaurant chains by sales" and found that 42% of the restaurants offered nutritional information, and 13 of those voluntarily provided menu labeling. The researchers were reportedly able to establish that restaurants that provide calorie labeling on menus offered food with 45% less fat and 60% less salt, though they could not identify whether the labeling caused the companies to formulate products with lower fat and salt contents.
Joining a number of pending putative class actions, a New York plaintiff's firm has filed three lawsuits alleging that Wegmans Food Markets Inc., Whole Foods Market Group Inc. and Moran Foods LLC mislead consumers by marketing their products as vanilla-flavored while using artificial flavors. As with similar cases previously filed, the complaints target dairy and associated products—ice cream and almondmilk—and allege that the front-of-package representation of the flavor as "vanilla" amounts to violations of New York's consumer-protection statutes. Arriola v. Wegman Food Markets Inc., No. 19-9227 (S.D.N.Y., filed October 4, 2010); Pinkston v. Whole Foods Mkt. Grp. Inc., No. 19-9362 (S.D.N.Y., filed October 9, 2019); Smith v. Moran Foods LLC, No. 19-9453 (S.D.N.Y., filed October 12, 2019).
