After deciding that the plaintiff lacked standing to bring a consumer-fraud class action under the Class Action Fairness Act, a federal court in New Jersey has granted his motion to dismiss without prejudice, while denying the defendants’ cross-motion for partial summary judgment because it lacked subject matter jurisdiction. Robinson v. Hornell Brewing Co., No. 11-2183 (D.N.J., decided December 13, 2012). The plaintiff had sought declaratory and injunctive relief on behalf of a class of purchasers of Arizona beverages that contain high-fructose corn syrup and were labeled as “all natural.” He sought to certify the class under Rule 23(b)(2). According to the court, the evidence showed that the plaintiff had no intention of purchasing these products in the future and therefore could not show a reasonable likelihood of future injury from the defendants’ conduct. Thus, the court denied his motion to certify the class for lack of standing to seek injunctive…
Tag Archives corn syrup
A recent study has reportedly linked the availability of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to an increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes across the world, raising questions about the sweetener’s impact on global human health. Michael Goran, et al., “High fructose corn syrup and diabetes prevalence: A global perspective,” Global Public Health, November 2012. Researchers with the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine and the University of Oxford apparently examined HFCS consumption in 42 countries, concluding that in countries like the United States, which had the highest per capita HFCS consumption of 55 pounds per year, the average prevalence of type 2 diabetes was 8 percent “compared to 6.7 percent in countries not using HFCS.” “The study reports that countries that use HFCS in their food supply had a 20 percent higher prevalence of diabetes than countries that did not use HFCS,” according to a Keck School of…
A federal court has agreed to certify a class of California consumers allegedly misled by representations that AriZona Iced Tea® is “Natural” because it contains the processed, man-made ingredients high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and citric acid. Ries v. Arizona Beverages USA LLC, No. 10-01139 (N.D. Cal., order entered November 27, 2012). But the court granted the certification motion “for the purpose of injunctive and declaratory relief only” thus foreclosing the recovery of “monetary damages, including restitution, refund, reimbursement and disgorgement.” The named plaintiffs had sought certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(2), which “does not authorize class certification when each class member would be entitled to an individualized award of monetary damages.” According to the court, the claim for monetary relief predominates the complaint, and the plaintiffs “seek individualized awards of monetary restitution which would require individualized assessments of damages based on how many products the class member had…
In a move that Mother Jones magazine calls “surreal,” The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) has issued a press release using the magazine’s recently published exposé “Big Sugar’s Sweet Lies” as a “cudgel” in CRA’s battle with the sugar industry. The exposé outlines the alleged decades-long efforts by the U.S. sugar industry to influence the debate about the health effects of sugar compared to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and CRA apparently believes it helps its case. In the article “Are High-Fructose Corn Syrup Makers in Denial?,”Mother Jones author Michael Mechanic writes, “The corn refiners should be sending flowers, not subpoenas, to the Sugar Association. After all, the association’s decades-long campaign to bury evidence suggesting that its product plays a role in the ‘death-dealing diseases’—as revealed in our story—has benefited the makers of HFCS as well. If the corn refiners imagine that our exposé somehow left them looking good, well, I’ve got some…
A recent commentary published in the International Journal of Obesity has dubbed high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) “one of the most misunderstood ingredients,” arguing that studies linking the sweetener’s use to increasing obesity rates tend to rely on temporal associations, “an ecologic fallacy in which group data are extrapolated to individuals.” D.M. Klurfeld et al., “Lack of evidence for high fructose corn syrup as the cause of the obesity epidemic,” International Journal of Obesity, September 2012. In particular, the article’s authors claim that not only did earlier hypotheses fuel misconceptions about “the metabolism and health effects of HFCS,” but more recent research has failed to identify a mechanism by which HFCS affects the body differently than sucrose, “the leading source of fructose in the American diet.” They also note that obesity and diabetes rates have not declined even as HFCS consumption has decreased and that these rates have persisted in areas…
New York and New Jersey residents have filed a putative nationwide class action with two statewide subclasses against General Mills, Inc. in a Minnesota federal court, alleging that the company has violated federal and state consumer fraud laws by marketing its Nature Valley snack bars as “100% Natural” when they contain high-fructose corn syrup and other non-natural ingredients. Chin v. General Mills, Inc., No. 12-2150 (D. Minn., filed August 31, 2012). The plaintiffs also allege that the products contain highly processed high-maltose corn syrup and the texturizer maltodextrin. They allege that they relied on the company’s marketing and advertising and purchased its products “believing them to be 100% natural,” but sustained “injury in fact and lost money as a result of General Mills having misrepresented the Nature Valley Products.” According to the complaint, General Mills incorporates the “100% Natural” claim into its primary branding of the Nature Valley products and…
Citizens for Health has filed a citizen’s petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting that the agency amend its high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) regulations. The requested changes would require food producers (i) using HFCS, to identify its concentration f ructose on product labels (e.g., HFCS with 42 percent fructose would be labeled “high fructose corn syrup 42”), and (ii) manipulating the mount of fructose in HFCS “to a different concentration than a standardized blend of 42 or 55,” to also incorporate the concentration into he ingredient name (e.g., HFCS with 90 percent fructose would be labeled “high fructose corn syrup 90”). Citizens for Health also asked that FDA initiate enforcement actions against food companies using HFCS with fructose in amounts other than 42 or 55 percent because these are the concentrations FDA has apparently designated as generally recognized as safe. According to the petition, numerous online articles…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a putative class action on behalf of two named California residents against General Mills alleging that its use of “All Natural,” “Natural,” and “100% Natural” product representations on its Nature Valley® food products is deceptive because they contain high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), high-maltose corn syrup, and maltodextrin and rice maltodextrin. Janney v. General Mills, No. 12-3919 (N.D. Cal., filed July 26, 2012). According to the complaint, these ingredients are not “minimally processed,” yet the defendant purportedly “takes wrongful advantage of consumers’ strong preference for foods made entirely of natural ingredients” with words and images in its marketing and on product labels evocative of the outdoors and nature. While one of the named plaintiffs purchased “natural” food for a daughter with type 1 diabetes and the other sought an all-natural diet for a daughter with ADHD, they do not allege personal…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected a Corn Refiners Association (CRA) petition urging the authorization of “corn sugar” as an alternate name for high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). According to FDA’s May 30, 2012, response, CRA had asked the agency (i) “to amend the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) affirmation regulation for HFCS (21 CFR 168.11) to designate ‘corn sugar’ as an optional name for HFCS”; (ii) “to eliminate ‘corn sugar’ as an alternate name for dextrose”; and (iii) “to replace all references to ‘corn sugar’ with ‘dextrose’” in the GRAS regulations for corn sugar (21 CFR 184.1857). The trade association had apparently argued, among other things, that consumers confused by the name “high-fructose corn syrup” “incorrectly believe that HFCS is significantly higher in calories, fructose and sweetness than sugar.” In rejecting the petition, FDA countered that its regulations define sugar as “a solid, dried, and crystallized food; whereas…
A recent study has reportedly detected inorganic arsenic (Asi) in organic brown rice syrup (OBRS), a prepared foods sweetener sometimes used in lieu of high-fructose corn syrup. Brian P. Jackson, et al., “Arsenic, Organic Foods, and Brown Rice Syrup,” Environmental Health Perspectives, February 2012. Researchers evidently sought to determine “the concentration and speciation of arsenic (As) in commercially available brown rice syrups, and in products containing OBRS including toddler formula, cereal/energy bars, and high energy foods used by endurance athletes.” Their results purportedly indicated that OBRS “can contain high concentrations of Asi and dimethylarsenate (DMA),” raising concerns about products such as organic toddler milk formula that use OBRS as a primary ingredient. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a February 17, 2012, statement pledging to expand “its surveillance activities” in response to the study’s claims. The agency has also commissioned its own research on arsenic in rice and rice…
