Food Litigation News

Serving up legal insights on food and beverage labeling and nutritional content

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By: Perkins Coie LLP

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Alexa S.Z. Austin
Alex Bailey
Alisha Burgin
Anahit Samarjian
Andrew Victor
Barak Cohen
Breena M. Roos
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Christoph Ritzer (DE)
Charles Sipos
Perkins Coie
Caryn Trombino
David T. Biderman
Daniel Glenn
Erin Banks
Elan DiMaio
Furqan Mohammed
Jacqueline E. Young
Jeanne Cullen
Jess A. Dance
Jason Howell
Julie L. Hussey
Julia E. Markley
Katie O'Sullivan
Lara Degenhart Cassidy
Linda A. Powell
Lawrence Reichman
Lauren Staniar
Markus Funk
Michael Sharkey
Michael S. Young
Mica D. Simpson
Oliver Gold
Perkins Coie
Paul Hirose
Rebecca Grube
Sunita Bali
Steven Hwang
Steven D. Merriman
Thomas D. Ryerson
Vilma R. Palma-Solana

Latest from Food Litigation News

On December 20, 2018, President Trump signed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (popularly known as the 2018 Farm Bill) into law. Among the broad-ranging provisions included in the law, it legalizes the cultivation and sale of hemp at the federal level, effective January 1, 2019. Hemp and cannabidiol (CBD) businesses have thrived in numerous state jurisdictions in which such products are legal. Federal legalization means that hemp producers and businesses that deal in hemp…
Each month we will be sharing the PC Food Litigation Index, a summary of latest class action filings in the food and beverage industry. This data is compiled by Perkins Coie based on a review of dockets from courts nationwide. November saw a high number of new class action complaints advancing familiar challenges to the “all natural” claims affixed to pasta, ice cream, potato chips and other products. Due to the lack of regulatory guidance…
In its recent ruling in Weiss v. Trader Joe’s Company, the Central District of California faced the question of whether certain statements on product labels promoting high-alkalinity water were false and misleading or simply puffery. Among these statements were claims that the water is “ionized to achieve the perfect balance.” Plaintiff Dana Weiss argued that the claims found on the actual product, together with advertising statements made in the defendant’s “Fearless Flyer” marketing brochure,…
On Tuesday, October 23, 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an important opinion reviving a decade-old Alien Tort Claims Act (ATS) suit based on alleged aiding and abetting slave labor in cocoa farms on the Ivory Coast. Doe 1 v. Nestle, et al., No. 17-55435, 2018 WL 5260852 (9th Cir. Oct. 23, 2018). In doing so, the Court ruled that even if the ATS applied only to domestic conduct, the facts alleged in…
Each month we will be sharing the PC Food Litigation Index, a summary of latest class action filings in the food and beverage industry. This data is compiled by Perkins Coie based on a review of dockets from courts nationwide. October 2018 filings continued an upward trend exceeding 2017’s pace.  As in the later months of 2017, October 2018 filings focused on false labeling, slack-fill, and all-natural. Both slack-fill claims filed this month pertained to…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is implementing changes to the Nutrition Facts Panel for food and beverage labels. Manufacturers are required to comply with the new requirements by January 1, 2020, although manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales have an additional year, until January 1, 2021. Key changes include the following: Serving sizes are being changed to reflect the amounts typically consumed. In addition, larger packages may now be considered a…
Sixty-eight percent of households in the United States — or approximately 85 million families — own a pet, according to the 2017 to 2018 National Pet Owners Survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association. Because most pet owners treat their pets as members of the family, it is no surprise then that what they feed their pets is as important to them as what they feed their family. As consumers shift toward “organic,” “natural”…
Each month we will be sharing the PC Food Litigation Index, a summary of latest class action filings in the food and beverage industry. This data is compiled by Perkins Coie based on a review of dockets from courts nationwide. September filing activity included several cases challenging the marketing and labeling claims attached to beverage products, with well-known brands like Coca-Cola and Arizona Beverages in plaintiffs lawyers’ sights. Nelson v. Coca-Cola is among the latest…
On August 1, plaintiff and putative class representative Markeith Parks sued celebrity chef Rachael Ray’s dog food brand Nutrish® alleging that the products are falsely labeled and marketed as “natural.” The complaint states that Nutrish® contains the chemical glyphosate, which Parks alleges is “unnatural.”[1] Given Rachael Ray’s national fame, this case has caught the attention of multiple media outlets and legal powerhouses with experience in similar claims. Perkins Coie’s food litigation team conducted research into…