Food & Beverage Litigation & Regulatory Update

Category: Issue 545

  • Yogurt Sugar Content and “Non-GMO” Almond Milk Labels Challenged

    Whole Foods Market Inc. is the target of two new putative nationwide class actions, one filed in a Texas federal court regarding the amount of sugar in the company’s plain Greek yogurt and the other filed in a California state court over alleged false advertising and sales of Blue Diamond almond milk products with a…

  • State AGs Appeal Dismissal of Challenge to California’s Hen-Confinement Rules

    According to a news source, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) and the attorneys general (AGs) of Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Kentucky have filed a notice that they will appeal a district court dismissal of their challenge to a California law that allegedly forces egg producers in other states to comply with a voter-approved ballot…

  • Missouri Court Allows Tainted Cantaloupe Claims Against Safety-Audit Firm

    A federal court in Missouri has denied the motion to dismiss filed by a food-safety company responsible for auditing conditions at the Jensen Farms cantaloupe facility some six weeks before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspected the farm and found the Listeria strains associated with a nationwide outbreak that allegedly sickened the plaintiff. West…

  • New York Legislator Renews Call for SSB Warning Labels

    According to press reports, New York Assemblyman Karim Camara (D-Brooklyn) announced this week that he intends to propose legislation requiring sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) to carry labels cautioning that their consumption contributes to “obesity, diabetes and tooth decay.” He introduced a similar bill (A10172) in August 2014, but no action was apparently taken on that initiative.…

  • APHIS Rules GE Alfalfa Not a Plant Pest Risk

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has determined that KK179 alfalfa, a genetically engineered (GE) crop that was created “to express reduced levels of guaiacyl lignin, a major subunit component of total lignin that slows the digestion of cellulose in livestock, as compared to conventional alfalfa at the same…

  • USDA Approves GE Potato for Market

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has approved for commercial planting a new variety of potato genetically engineered (GE) for low acrylamide and reduced black spot bruise. The potatoes in question use a technique known as RNA interference to silence genes involved in bruising and the production of…