The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that Phillip Carawan pleaded guilty to falsely labeling crabmeat worth $4 million as a product of the United States despite being imported. Carawan and his company apparently could not meet customer demand and imported foreign crabmeat to cover orders for U.S.-produced crabmeat. “Seafood mislabeling is consumer fraud that undermines efforts of hardworking, honest fisherman and the free market by devaluing the price of domestic seafood,” the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina said in a DOJ press release. “In this case, the fraudulent scheme artificially deflated the cost of domestic blue crab and gave Carawan an unacceptable economic advantage over law-abiding competitors.”
The Minneapolis City Council has reportedly voted to ban the establishment of new drive-thru facilities within city limits. The ordinance does not affect existing restaurants, and businesses are permitted to alter or expand their drive-thrus. The law reportedly targets carbon emissions caused by idling cars.
A Massachusetts federal court has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Post Consumer Brands misleads consumers by implying that Honey Bunches of Oats is primarily sweetened with honey rather than sugar, brown sugar and corn syrup. Lima v. Post Consumer Brands LLC, No. 18-12100 (D. Mass., entered August 13, 2019). Post argued that "honey" describes "one of the cereal's primary recognizable flavors" in addition to being a sweetener. "Plaintiffs seemingly understand that honey is both a sweetener and a flavoring agent," the court found, "yet they do not explain why they concluded that the word honey and the associated imagery necessarily meant that honey was the primary sweetener, rather than referring to the flavor of the cereal." Further, the court found that the packaging "makes no objective representation about the amount of honey, leaving the cereal's accurate list of ingredients as the only unambiguous representation of the amount of honey relative…
U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) have introduced the Food Date Labeling Act, which aims to "end consumer confusion around food date labeling and ensure Americans do not throw out perfectly good food," according to a press release. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) has introduced a companion bill in the Senate. The proposed law would establish "Best if Used By" to communicate that the quality may decline following the listed date, while "Use By" would communicate that a product should not be consumed after the listed date. "Food labeling is important for consumer education, but the current practice is confusing and outdated. This bill takes a step toward reducing food waste by helping consumers understand the meaning behind date labels," Newhouse is quoted as saying. "The legislation also helps restaurants and grocery stores bridge the gap when it comes to donating food to shelters, food banks and other…
A New York federal court has granted Crystal Farms Refrigerated Distribution Co.'s motion to dismiss a putative class action alleging that the packaging of Diner's Choice mashed potatoes misleads consumers by featuring "Made with Real Butter" on the front despite containing both butter and margarine. Reyes v. Crystal Farms Refrigerated Distrib. Co., No. 18-2250 (E.D.N.Y., entered July 26, 2019). The court dismissed the allegations relying on the "butter" representation because the statement "is not misleading. Defendant's mashed potatoes contain butter. [] To the extent that including a label on a mashed-potatoes package indicating that the product is 'made with real butter' may create confusion as to whether the mashed potatoes also contain margarine, such confusion is sufficiently dispelled by the ingredients label on the back of the package, which states twice—and once in bold font set apart from the rest of the items listed in the ingredients label—that the product…
An Illinois federal court has dismissed part of a putative class action alleging that Champion Petfoods USA Inc. sold foods for animals that contained elevated levels of several heavy metals—including arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead—as well as bisphenol A (BPA), pentobarbital, "non-regional and non-fresh ingredients, or unnatural or other ingredients that do not conform to the dog foods' packaging or advertising." Zarinebaf v. Champion Petfoods USA Inc., No. 18-6951 (N.D. Ill., E. Div., entered July 30, 2019). The court found that the plaintiffs were not alleging the dog foods to contain unsafe levels of the materials at issue; rather, the plaintiffs' claims were plausible because they alleged that the marketing led them to believe the products to be "healthy, natural and high-quality" but that a reasonable consumer would not have purchased the products knowing that they contained heavy metals and BPA. The court dismissed claims relying on the presence of…
H.J. Heinz Co. has filed a trademark infringement suit alleging Real Good Food Co. created and sold frozen appetizers described as "Poppers," which Heinz argues it owns the rights to for "frozen appetizers consisting primarily of vegetables, pork and/or cheese, not including shrimp." H.J. Heinz Co. Brands LLC v. Real Good Food Co., No. 19-0915 (W.D. Penn., filed July 26, 2019). Heinz further argues that Real Good Food Co. had actual knowledge of Heinz's rights to the Poppers mark because Real Good Food Co.'s website compares its products to Heinz's TGI Friday's-branded appetizers. Heinz alleges federal trademark counterfeiting, infringement, dilution and unfair competition and seeks injunctive relief, damages and destruction of infringing materials.
The New Yorker has described a visit to the warehouse of Fulton Fish Market, a web start-up that aims to provide fresh fish across the United States using "an Amazon-esque warehousing-and-logistics system." In "The Last Robot-Proof Job in America?" the author states, "There is one thing, however, that the sophisticated logistics system cannot do: pick out a fish." Robert DiGregorio, the expert who selects fish for the company, The New Yorker explains, "possesses a blend of discernment and arcane fish knowledge that, so far, computers have yet to replicate." "What can a fishmonger see that a computer can't?" The New Yorker points to "a nice 'film'—as in slime," which purportedly protects the fish from bacteria and parasites, along with the smell—"when [skate] goes bad, it smells like ammonia," DiGregorio told the magazine. Further, he said that he builds relationships with the fishmongers to "get the best stuff—not the stuff they…
The EU Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the U.K. House of Lords has submitted a letter to the country's agriculture minister in response to a EU committee's approval of a measure that would prohibit the use of meat-associated words and phrases—including "sausage," "burger" and "steak"—to describe plant-derived products. "Veggie tubes proposal a misteak," the subcommittee's press release headline states. "Our witnesses were unanimous in the view that current naming conventions around vegetarian burgers and sausages are clear and easy to understand," the letter states. "[W]e are concerned that the amendment would in fact reduce consumer clarity, be a barrier to growth for a burgeoning sector of the food industry, and ultimately make it more challenging for people to reduce the amount of meat in their diet at a time when Government should be seeking to encourage the opposite." The letter also notes that the amendment is "unlikely to apply directly…
In testimony before the House Agriculture Subcommittee, Under Secretary of Agriculture Greg Ibach suggested that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could potentially be used in the production of organic foods eventually. "As the National Organic Standards Board set the rules originally, right now GMO or transgenics are not eligible to be in the Organic Program, but we've seen new technology evolve that includes gene editing that accomplishes things in shorter periods of time that can be done through a natural breeding process," Ibach stated. "I think there is the opportunity to open the discussion to consider whether it is appropriate for some of these new technologies that include gene editing to be eligible to be used to enhance organic production and to have resistant varieties—drought-resistant, disease-resistant varieties as well as higher-yielding varieties—available." Meanwhile, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) released guidance on how human dietary exposure to newly expressed proteins in…
