Court Dismisses Class Action Alleging Inadequate Cooking Instructions on Pot Pies

A federal court in California has reportedly dismissed claims that ConAgra Foods, Inc. provided inadequate cooking instructions on its chicken pot pie products. Meaunrit v. ConAgra Foods, Inc., No. 09-02220 (N.D. Cal., decided July 20, 2010). More than 250 people purportedly got sick after eating the company’s pot pies in 2007 in a Salmonella outbreak that led to a nationwide recall.

The named plaintiff in this putative class action apparently did not get sick, but claimed that the company put human health at risk by providing inadequate cooking instructions too difficult for the average consumer to understand. She also alleged that the company’s production facilities subjected consumers to food borne illnesses by failing to adequately prevent bacterial contamination of its products. According to the court, federal agencies pre-approved ConAgra’s product labeling and, “[b]ecause the pre-approval process includes a determination of whether the labeling is false and misleading, and the gravamen of Plaintiff’s attack on the label concerns whether those instructions are accurate, the plaintiff’s state [law] causes of action are preempted by federal law.”

This plaintiff filed similar litigation against another food producer in September 2009. More information about that case can be found in issue 321 of this Update.