Repeated motions of lifting pitchers, steaming milk and stamping espresso may cause medial epicondylitis—golfer’s elbow—or other stress injuries in baristas. A recent New York Post article chronicles one woman’s experience with a stress injury allegedly resulting from her job duties as a barista. In addition, a former barista in Canberra, Australia, was recently awarded $600,000 (AUD) in damages after she had a rib removed and was diagnosed with a nerve disorder as a result of the stress from repeatedly holding a 4.4-pound jug of milk while the coffee machine steamed it. According to an informal survey conducted by coffee website Sprudge, 55 percent of 475 respondents reported they had sustained repetitive stress injuries in their barista work. While treatment can include physical therapy or surgery, a certified hand specialist who spoke to the Post said that preventative measures like exercise and better posture can help protect coffee shop employees from…
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A recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has reportedly found that “[p]eople who increased the amount of coffee they drank each day by more than one cup over a four-year period had an 11% lower risk for type 2 diabetes than those who made no changes to their coffee consumption.” Shilpa Bhupathiraju et al., “Changes in coffee intake and subsequent risk of type 2 diabetes: three large cohorts of US men and women,” Diabetologia, April 2014. Researchers examined data from the Nurses’ Health Study from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which evaluated participants’ diets every four years from 1986 to 2006 with a questionnaire. Their analysis showed that subjects who increased their coffee intake—the median increase was about a cup and a half each day—during the four-year period between questionnaires had an 11 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the next four-year period.…
A recent study has reportedly demonstrated “the protective effect of coffee on non-viral hepatitis-related cirrhosis mortality.” George Boon-Bee Goh, et al., “Coffee, alcohol and other beverages in relation to cirrhosis mortality: the Singapore Chinese Health study,” Hepatology, April 2014. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, researchers examined diet, lifestyle and medical history data from 63,275 middle aged participants enrolled in The Singapore Chinese Health Study over a mean follow-up of 14.7 years. During that time, 114 participants died from cirrhosis related to viral hepatitis (33 percent), chronic alcohol consumption (12 percent) and hepatitis C (2 percent), as well as biliary cirrhosis, autoimmune cirrhosis, and cryptogenic or unspecified cirrhosis. In addition to finding that alcohol consumption was “a strong risk factor for cirrhosis mortality,” the study evidently showed an inverse dose dependent relationship between caffeine intake and non-viral cirrhosis mortality. The study’s authors have suggested that “the benefit of coffee on…
A federal court in California has refused to certify four classes of Starbucks employees in litigation alleging that its rest break policy and scheduling practices, and meal period policy and practices violated the state’s Labor Code and Unfair Competition Law. Cummings v. Starbucks Corp., No. 12-6345 (C.D. Cal., decided March 24, 2014). As to the proposed meal break class, the court found that the plaintiff’s “second theory of liability—that Starbucks had a practice of failing to provide timely meal breaks—does not present a common question of law” because “there is no common answer as to why employees took a late meal break, and individualized inquiries into each late meal break would be required.” The court also found as to this proposed class that the plaintiff’s claims did not meet the typicality requirement because her alleged late meal break claims were due not to a defective policy, but “because of unique…
A federal court in California has determined that the tasks an employee performed only when working the closing shift for Starbucks Corp. consumed a de minimis amount of time and thus dismissed his claims that the company violated the state Labor Code by failing to pay him for that time. Troester v. Starbucks Corp., No. 12-7677 (C.D. Cal., order entered March 7, 2014). According to the court, the software Starbucks used during the relevant time period required an employee to clock out before initiating the store closing procedure, which involved setting the store alarm and locking the door, tasks that took no more than one to two minutes. Other tasks the employee undertook included walking employees to their cars or staying with them until they were picked up, placing forgotten patio furniture indoors, or even re-entering the store to retrieve an employee’s personal belongings. In the court’s view, “[e]ven assuming all…
Mother Jones has published a March 5, 2014, interview with journalist Murray Carpenter about his forthcoming book, Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit HelpsUs, Hurts, and Hooks Us, which aims to “bring us the inside perspective at the additive that Salt Sugar Fat overlooked.” Speaking with Maddie Oatman about “how much caffeine is healthy, where the industry stands on labeling, and the most pretentious coffee preparation he’s observed,” Carpenter notes that current regulations do not require foods or supplements to disclose caffeine content on labeling. “There’s some voluntary labeling initiatives underway: The American Beverage Association has recommended bottlers do that, but you can still find energy drinks that don’t tell you how much caffeine is in them,” Carpenter is quoted as saying. “It’s not impossible for coffee and tea to start doing this. And for the products where caffeine is blended in very specific amounts, I don’t see any reason consumers…
TreeHouse Foods, Inc. has filed an antitrust and unfair competition lawsuit against Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. and Keurig, Inc., alleging that they have undertaken a series of unlawful practices that have allowed them to dominate the single-serve coffee market, despite the expiration of their “K-Cup” patents in 2012. TreeHouse Foods, Inc. v. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., No. 14-0905 (S.D.N.Y., filed February 11, 2014). Among other matters, the plaintiffs claim that Green Mountain (i) eliminated potential competitors by acquiring them; (ii) systematically tied up vertical distribution channels for competitive cups by entering restrictive exclusive dealing contracts with companies at all levels of the compatible cup distribution system, including machinery sellers, compatible cup component sellers, competitor coffee roasters and coffee brands, and retailers selling compatible cups to end user consumers, businesses and institutions; (iii) filed an unsuccessful patent infringement lawsuit against the plaintiff—the Federal Circuit concluded that “Keurig is attempting to…
A California resident has filed a putative statewide class action against Ralphs Grocery Co., alleging that it misleads consumers by labeling its decaffeinated coffee products as “without caffeine” when they are actually, according to labeling fine print, “99.7% caffeine free.” Kopalian v. Ralphs Grocery Co., No. BC533846 (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty., filed January 22, 2014). The plaintiff invokes no state or federal law labeling violations, but instead claims that the labeling and packaging are “likely to confuse and mislead consumers.” He contends that he relied on the “without caffeine” labeling to make his purchase, believing that the product was 100 percent caffeine free, and chose it over other brands for this reason. Alleging breach of express warranty and violations of the state’s Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law and Consumers Legal Remedies Act, the plaintiff seeks injunctive relief, including a corrective advertising campaign, actual and punitive damages, restitution,…
A federal court in Illinois has denied a request that it reconsider an earlier order denying certification of a multi-state class of single-serve coffee purchasers allegedly deceived into believing that the product was ground coffee and not instant; the court has also granted the defendants’ motions for summary judgment. Suchanek v. Sturm Foods, Inc., No. 11-565 (S.D. Ill., decided November 20, 2013). Information about the court’s previous ruling appears in Issue 496 of this Update. According to the court, “[t]he problem with the proposed class here is that showing reliance or causation—as required to establish liability requires an investigation of each purchaser.” The court details the purchasing experiences of each named plaintiff in this consolidated action and finds that most did not read the packaging, understood what the word “soluble” means or purchased the product due to price, shelf placement, imagery, or because they liked to try new things. Finding that…
A federal court in Illinois has refused to certify a multistate class of consumers who were allegedly deceived under the consumer protection statutes and unjust enrichment laws of eight named states by a company that, at one time, either misrepresented or failed to indicate that its single serving coffee product contained “instant” or “soluble” coffee rather than fresh ground coffee and a filter. McManus v. Sturm Foods, Inc., No. 11-565 (S.D. Ill., order entered August 26, 2013). According to the court, the class, defined as all consumers in the eight states who purchased the product from September 2010 until the present, included many who had no injury or had not relied on any product representations. Among the putative class members were individuals who (i) knew that the product was instant coffee and bought it anyway because it made no difference to their purchasing decision, (ii) purchased the product after the…
