A consumer has filed a putative class action alleging that Trader Joe's Co. sells raw poultry products that contain more retained water than indicated on the package. Webb v. Trader Joe's Co., No. 19-1587 (S.D. Cal., removed August 23, 2019). The complaint alleges that the retained water in some packaged poultry was found to be as much as 16% but labeled as a maximum of 5%. "Poultry products are sold by weight," the plaintiff argues. "Excess Retained Water in the product unlawfully increases the price the consumer pays and decreases the value of the product, cheating the consumer." The plaintiff asserts eight causes of action, including theft by false pretenses and unjust enrichment, and seeks class certification, restitution and damages.
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Citing a Consumer Reports piece investigating the arsenic content of several bottled-water brands, three plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit alleging that Whole Foods Market Inc. sells water that "has some of the highest arsenic levels of any bottled water presently being marketed in the United States, with some bottles exceeding the maximum arsenic contamination levels allowed by federal and state law." Berke v. Whole Foods Mkt. Inc., No. 19-7471 (C.D. Cal., filed August 28, 2019). The plaintiffs argue that Whole Foods charged a "hefty premium," "especially as compared to tap water," for a product it marketed as "some of the purest and most pristine water available in the U.S." while it knew "that the product has been universally contaminated with arsenic, with some bottles containing the industry's highest levels of arsenic for many years." The plaintiffs seek class certification damages, restitution and attorney's fees for alleged violations of California and…
A California federal court has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Clif Bars misled consumers into believing their bars contained white chocolate, but it granted the plaintiffs leave to amend their allegations. Joslin v. Clif Bar & Co., No. 18-4941 (N.D. Cal., entered August 26, 2019). The court first found that the plaintiffs failed to show that they had standing to pursue injunctive relief because they did "not allege a cognizable threat of future harm," then turned to the issue of white chocolate on the label. "Accepting Plaintiffs’ allegations as true, and drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of Plaintiffs, the Court concludes Plaintiffs’ allegations are not sufficient to show members of the public are likely to be deceived," the court ruled. However, it was "not convinced at this stage that amendment would be futile," so it granted leave to amend.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that Memet Beqiri had pleaded guilty to "a charge related to his meat processing business's falsification of numerous E. coli test results," according to a press release. Beqiri, owner and general manager of New England Meat Packing LLC, allegedly prepared and submitted falsified documents indicating that the company had sent carcass swabs and ground beef samples to a certified laboratory, which purportedly had found no E. coli. "In fact, none of the 52 carcass swabs and samples had been submitted or tested by the identified laboratory, or any other laboratory, and the 36 documents were fraudulently prepared using laboratory letterhead obtained from previous testing that New England Meat Packing had conducted with that laboratory," the press release states. The charge carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years; Beqiri will be sentenced in November 2019.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a public meeting to discuss the agency's "effort to modernize food standards of identity (SOI) and provide information about changes we could make to existing SOI, particularly changes that could be made across categories of standardized foods (i.e., horizontal changes), to provide flexibility for the development of healthier foods." The meeting will be held September 27, 2019, and comments on the subject will be accepted until November 12.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will hold a public workshop to consider "Made in USA" product claims on September 26, 2019. In advance, FTC is requesting comments on several questions, including: (i) "What rationales underlie consumer preferences for products made in USA?"; (ii) "When consumers see product advertisements or labels stating or implying that products are 'Made in USA' or the equivalent, what amount of U.S. parts and labor do they assume are in the products?"; and (iii) "Do firms that advertise their products as 'Made in USA' charge higher prices than their competitors whose products are not advertised in this way?"
The Center for Food Safety and Center for Environmental Health have filed a lawsuit seeking to compel the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to promulgate rules for a program to improve foodborne-illness detection as required under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Ctr. for Food Safety v. Azar, No. 19-5168 (N.D. Cal., filed August 19, 2019). The organizations allege that FDA failed to create a laboratory accreditation program "whereby an increased number of accredited laboratories following model standards developed by the agency would be in place 'to rapidly detect and respond to foodborne illness outbreaks and other food-related hazards.'" "FDA’s failure to implement FSMA’s laboratory accreditation provisions by their statutory deadlines is an abdication of the agency’s fundamental responsibilities," the complaint asserts. "Moreover, the agency’s unlawful withholding and unreasonable delay is putting millions of lives at continued risk from contracting foodborne illnesses, contrary to Congress’s commands. This lawsuit therefore…
A plaintiff has filed a putative class action alleging Tillamook County Creamery Association misleadingly markets its products as sourced from cows in Tillamook County. Bohr v. Tillamook Cty. Creamery Ass'n, No. 19-36208 (Ore. Cir. Ct., Multnomah Cty., filed August 19, 2019). The complaint alleges that consumers "increasingly seek out and are willing to pay more for products that they perceive as being locally and ethically sourced—better for the environment, more humane." Tillamook allegedly sought to capitalize on this consumer preference by advertising its products as "made with four ingredients, patience, and old-fashioned farmer values in Tillamook, Oregon," despite producing its cheese and ice cream with ingredients obtained from "the largest and most industrialized dairy factory farm in the country," a "complex of cement-floored production facilities and barren dirt feedlots, where cows are continuously confined, milked by robotic carousels, and afflicted with painful udder infections." The complaint cites a "recent consumer…
A California federal court has dismissed a putative class action complaint alleging that Danone U.S. Inc.'s So Delicious Coconut Milk is misleadingly marketed as healthful. Andrade-Heymsfield v. Danone U.S. Inc., No. 19-0589 (S.D. Cal., entered August 14, 2019). Danone argued that the challenged statements were not health or nutrient content claims, and the court assessed each statement. "The 'Maximum Calcium Absorption' statement . . . is a permissible structure/function claim as permitted under the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's)] own guidance to its regulations. FDA guidance even lists 'calcium helps build strong bones' as a permitted structure/function claim, not a health claim," the court found. Similarly, "Nutrition in Every Sip" is a "permissible structure/function claim" and "is not made in connection with an explicit or implicit claim or statement about a nutrient as required by the regulation for implied nutrient content claims such as the cited example, 'healthy, contains…
A D.C. court has dismissed Bellion Spirits LLC's lawsuit aiming to compel the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to permit the company to market its products as containing "NTX, a proprietary blend of ingredients that they contend mitigates alcohol's damage to DNA." Bellion Spirits LLC v. United States, No. 17-2538 (D.D.C., entered August 1, 2019). TTB denied Bellion's application to make the health claims because it purportedly found inadequate substantiation after consulting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Bellion filed suit, arguing that TTB could not work with FDA without express statutory authority. The court disagreed, finding that TTB has exclusive regulatory authority to make final decisions on alcohol, but nothing prohibits the agencies from consulting with each other. The court also dismissed Bellion's First Amendment argument, which maintained that its claims about NTX are true; the court noted that it must be deferential to…
