The European Union’s General Court has rejected an appeal to register “Halloumi” and its Greek alphabet equivalent as Community Trade Marks, deeming the terms descriptive of the cheese product. Republic of Cyprus v. Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Mkt., Nos. T-292/14 and T-293/14 (Gen. Ct., order entered October 7, 2015). The application would have granted trademark protection for “Halloumi” within the European Union. Halloumi is set to receive Protected Designation of Origin status as a cheese produced on the island of Cyprus after the European Commission published the application to register the name in July 2015. As a trademark, however, the term is merely descriptive of the cheese product, the court found. “[T]he applicant acknowledges that the marks applied for have always been perceived by Cypriot consumers and by consumers across the European Union as referring to a particular type of cheese exported from Cyprus, made in a certain…
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A consumer has filed a putative class action against Kraft Foods Group Inc. alleging that the company’s fat-free cheese is mislabeled as “natural” because it contains artificial or synthetic ingredients, including “artificial color.” Quiñones-Gonzalez v. Kraft Foods Grp., Inc., No. 15-1892 (D.P.R., filed July 27, 2015). The plaintiff asserts that she relied on the “natural” label to mean that the product, “at a minimum, has no artificial ingredients or characteristics. The public is further led to believe the Product will be healthier, safer and/or produced to a higher standard.” She seeks class certification, an injunction, restitution and damages for allegations of deceptive and unfair marketing and unjust enrichment. A class was certified in June 2015 in a similar lawsuit pending in California federal court; details about the ruling appear in Issue 570 of this Update. Issue 573
A California federal court has certified a class of consumers challenging the “natural” label on Kraft’s fat-free cheddar cheese product but limited the class only to consumers who relied on that labeling when purchasing the product. Morales v. Kraft Foods Grp., Inc., No. 14-4387 (C.D. Cal., order entered June 23, 2015). The complaint had asserted that artificial coloring in the product precluded Kraft from labeling the cheese as “natural.” The court found that the proposed class met the numerosity, commonality, typicality and adequacy of representation standards, then focused on whether the common issues predominate over any individual issues. Kraft argued that the plaintiffs could not show that every member of the proposed class relied upon the “natural” representation because the term “natural” may mean different things to different people. The court disagreed but noted that Kraft could make that argument later in the legal process. Kraft also challenged the ascertainability of…
French restaurateurs and food critics are calling for new food-labeling rules after a documentary airing on France 2 reported that some of the country’s food manufacturers have been using vegetable fat-based substitutes for fresh milk when producing cheese products. In “Artificial Cheese on Your Plate” (“Du Faux Fromage Dans Votre Assiette”), cheese producers are reportedly shown stocking bags of processed cheese made with water, vegetable fat, lactic acid, table salt, and potassium sorbate, while others are shown mixing genuine mozzarella with cheese made without milk to create a popular substitute known as “50-50.” Many of the cheese substitutes also contain palm oil. A nutritionist told the documentary producers that the cheese substitutes lack the positive qualities of real cheese because they contain saturated fat without providing calcium as well. See The Daily Telegraph, June 14, 2015. Issue 569
An Illinois federal court has sentenced the former president of a Wisconsin cheese company to five days in jail, one year of probation and a $750,000 fine for lying to U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors about Queso Cincho de Guerrero cheese imported from Mexico and tainted with E. coli and Salmonella. U.S. v. Zurita, No. 12-0290 (N.D. Ill., sentence entered May 8, 2015). In 2007, Mexican Cheese Producers, Inc. reportedly received tainted cheese returned by retailers. Company workers apparently scraped and washed the cheese, and it was later resold. No illnesses related to the cheese were reported, and the government could not show that company owner Miguel Leal had ordered the workers’ actions, but he pled guilty in 2014 to charges of distributing tainted food and lying about it to federal inspectors. Government prosecutors asked for prison time of 10-16 months. “I don’t think I would have put him…
Public Health attorney and author Michele Simon has issued a report titled “Whitewashed: How Industry and Government Promote Dairy Junk Foods.” According to Simon, dairy foods have gotten “a pass” as the public health community focuses on “obvious culprits such as soft drinks and fast food” to address the nation’s “public health epidemic due to poor diet.” The report explains how plain liquid milk consumption has fallen in the United States and been replaced by its consumption as flavored milk, with cereal or in a drink. Simon claims that today half of the milk supply makes 9 billion pounds of cheese and 1.5 billion gallons of frozen desserts, such as ice cream, and 11 percent of all sugar is used in dairy product production. She refers to these products as “dairy junk foods” loaded with saturated fat, sugar and salt. The report focuses on the government’s collection of industry fees…
According to a Harvard microbiologist, 80 to 90 percent of the hard cheese produced in the United States uses, as part of the curd-separation process, rennet made with a genetically modified (GMO) ingredient—chymosin. Noting that “chymosin produced by E. coli was the first enzyme made with recombinant DNA technology approved for use in food. . . all the way back in 1991,” Kevin Bonham asks whether GMO technology opponents would object to eating cheese made with this type of chymosin, which is also naturally occurring in calf stomachs and chemically indistinguishable from its animal-derived counterpart, and whether companies, such as Whole Foods, promising to label their GMO products will use the label on cheese products. Apparently, “[m]ost regulatory agencies don’t consider chymosin an ingredient.” Bonham also reports that “the problem goes way beyond cheese,” because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “has approved over 30 recombinant enzymes for use in…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a clarification of its position on artisanal cheesemakers’ use of wood shelving, which can aid in aging cheese by controlling moisture to form rinds and hosting microbes that add character and flavor. FDA’s Constituent Update called reports that the agency established a new rule banning wood shelving “not accurate,” instead noting that its regulations merely require that “utensils and other surfaces that contact food must be ‘adequately cleanable’ and ‘properly maintained.’” The confusion comes from a letter sent by FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition to the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets indicating that wooden surfaces could not be adequately cleaned, thus violating the standards of the Food Safety Modernization Act. The Constituent Update noted that the letter was intended as a background of wood shelving use for aging cheeses and an analysis of relevant scientific…
U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) have written a March 11, 2014, letter to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), urging the agencies to reject the European Union’s (EU’s) request that product names such as feta, parmesan and muenster be reserved as “geographical indicators.” As part of ongoing Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations, the EU has reportedly claimed that common cheese names “can only be appropriately displayed on products made in certain areas of Europe.” To this end, it has apparently used free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries to restrict U.S. exports “under the guise of protection for its geographical indicators.” But the U.S. dairy industry has vociferously criticized the proposal, noting that names like cheddar and provolone are familiar to consumers and widely accepted on the global market. Signed by more than 50 senators, the letter asks USTR…
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a district court properly granted Kraft Foods a preliminary injunction against the sale of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBOCS) food products in grocery stores under Kraft’s registered trademark name “Cracker Barrel.” Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC v. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., No. 13-2559 (7th Cir., decided November 14, 2013). The court agreed that consumers could be confused when viewing a CBOCS ham label on a grocery store shelf or in a store circular because the words “Cracker Barrel” were larger than “Old Country Store” and Kraft cheeses also carry the “Cracker Barrel” name. While the logos are not the same, the court said that some consumers might believe that both products were made by Kraft. The court weighed the respective harms to both companies and found the potential harm to Kraft greater, because it could be wrongly blamed…
