Lenny & Larry's Inc. has agreed to pay $1.85 million in cash and $3.15 million in free products to settle a lawsuit alleging that its Complete Cookie did not provide the advertised amount of protein. Cowen v. Lenny & Larry's Inc., No. 17-1530 (N.D. Ill., E. Div., motion filed September 25, 2018). Under the settlement agreement, class members with proof of purchase can obtain up to $50 in cash or choose to obtain free Complete Cookies with a retail value of up to $30, while those without a proof of purchase can receive $10 cash or $15 of the product. Products that have not been redeemed from the $3.15 million fund "shall be distributed free via retail locations" in all 50 states.
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U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has issued a statement announcing the agency's Plant and Animal Biotechnology Innovation Action Plan. Gottlieb describes the plan as identifying priorities in three areas: (i) "advancing human and animal health by promoting product innovation and applying modern, efficient and risk-based regulatory pathways;" (ii) "strengthening public outreach and communication regarding the FDA’s approach to innovative plant and animal biotechnology;" and (iii) "increasing engagement with domestic and international partners on biotechnology issues." The plan indicates that FDA will "adopt a comprehensive policy framework for the development and regulatory oversight of animal biotechnology products, including for intentionally genetically altered animals and the food and drug products derived from them." The statement also announced that the agency's Center for Veterinary Medicine will host a webinar on genome editing in animals on December 3, 2018.
The European Parliament has approved a ban on several types of single-use plastics that is reportedly expected to take effect by 2021. The ban will apply to plastic cutlery, plates, straws and drink stirrers, and the measure also calls for a reduction in plastic cups and other single-use plastic containers used for food and beverages. The United Kingdom will also reportedly target single-use plastics with a tax on plastics that contain less than 30 percent recycled material, with a tax on single-use plastic cups under consideration as well.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has requested comments on "the prevalence and severity of sesame allergies in the United States and the prevalence of sesame-containing foods sold in the United States that are not required to disclose sesame as an ingredient." The announcement cites a 2014 petition submitted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest requesting a "rule to require that sesame seeds and sesame products be regulated in a manner similar to the manner in which major food allergens are regulated."
Shook Partner Cary Silverman has authored an article for the University of Cincinnati Law Review arguing for a consistent application of the "reasonable consumer" standard in food and beverage litigation. Describing frequent litigation targets such as foods labeled as "natural" and packages containing "excessive slack fill," Silverman explains that in some cases, "a plaintiff's alleged understanding of a product’s marketing is simply contrary to nature or reality." For example, he notes, a complaint alleging that Kind's Vanilla Blueberry Clusters were mislabeled as containing "no refined sugars" was dismissed because no reasonable consumer would interpret the label as meaning raw sugar cane, which is "a grass that contains joined stalks resembling bamboo … surrounded by bark." However, Silverman explains, some courts apply the reasonable consumer standard differently, allowing putative class action complaints to pass through the motion-to-dismiss stage, prompting settlement discussions between the parties. "In slack fill litigation, some courts have…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the availability of two draft guidance documents involving standards for produce. One draft guidance "provides a broad range of recommendations on how to meet the requirements" for growing produce and "outlines how to determine whether produce or farms may be eligible for exemptions." The second guidance focuses on fresh-cut produce and methods for minimizing food-safety hazards. Comments on both guidance documents will be accepted until April 22, 2019.
The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that StarKist Co. has agreed to plead guilty to charges alleging the company conspired to fix prices of packaged tuna. The company will face a fine of up to $100 million. "Our citizens' confidence in the ability to buy goods within an unbiased market is key to sustaining an efficient and fair economy,” a press release quotes a special agent as saying. “This investigation stands as a symbol of our commitment to holding corporations and senior leadership accountable and ensuring that activities such as price fixing will not be tolerated.”
The National Advertising Division (NAD) has referred The a2 Milk Company's claims that its products are "easier on digestion" to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The National Milk Producers Federation challenged the milk marketing, asserting "errors in study design, methodology, and population selection" as well as arguing that the results of the company's study are "clinically insignificant." The a2 Milk Company responded that the organization "selectively presents incomplete and outdated research and observations made without the benefit of recent research" but declined to participate further in the system of self-regulation.
Edible cottonseeds have been approved for commercial cultivation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and await Food and Drug Administration approval, according to Bloomberg. Texas A&M University has reportedly been developing the product—which apparently tastes "like hummus"—for more than two decades. Bloomberg compares the nutritional value of cottonseeds to other tree nuts such as almonds or walnuts; in addition, cottonseeds could be "fed to carnivorous fish like salmon and trout that eat ground-up fish," according to the article. The university's work “opens up the opportunity that eventually every cotton plant will have this technology in it,” a vice president at Cotton Inc. reportedly told Bloomberg. “There’s no reason to leave a toxin in a domesticated plant.”
The Center for Food Safety and the Center for Environmental Health have filed a lawsuit asserting that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has failed "to promulgate final regulations and complete actions by mandatory deadlines set by Congress in the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 (FSMA)." Ctr. for Food Safety v. Azar, No. 18-6299 (N.D. Cal., filed October 15, 2018). The organizations assert that FDA has failed to "classify and designate which foods that are classified as 'high-risk' for foodborne illness purposes" and "to create additional record keeping requirements for facilities handling such foods." The complaint argues that "retailers now have the available technology (e.g., blockchain) to 'identify the origin of certain produce shipments in as little as 2.2 seconds.' … In light of these advances in technology, FDA can no longer shirk the mandatory actions required of it by Congress to designate high-risk foods and issue a…
