Category: Issue 711
-
Appeals Court Declines to Reopen Aspartame Lawsuit
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has denied a plaintiff’s appeal aiming to overturn a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that Diet Dr Pepper is misleadingly named because it does not cause weight loss. Excevarria v. Dr Pepper Snapple Grp., Inc., No. 18-1492 (2nd Cir., entered April 17, 2019). “Plaintiffs…
-
Court Dismisses “Natural” Lawsuit Against Rachael Ray’s Dog Food
A New York federal court has dismissed a putative class action alleging that celebrity chef Rachael Ray’s brand of dog food, Rachael Ray Nutrish, is misleadingly marketed as “natural” because it contains traces of pesticides. Parks v. Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, LLC, No. 18-6936 (S.D.N.Y., entered April 18, 2019). The court found that the plaintiff could…
-
Lawsuit Challenges Cocoa Content in Oreos
A plaintiff has filed a putative class action alleging that Mondelez Global’s Oreos—marketed as “always made with real cocoa”—are misleadingly marketed because they contain cocoa processed with alkali. Harris v. Mondelez Global LLC, No. 19-2249 (E.D.N.Y., filed April 17, 2019). The complaint describes the alkali processing method, which “reduces the acidity of cocoa powder,” “detracting…
-
FDA Draft Guidance Excludes Allulose from Added Sugar Disclosure
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft guidance allowing food manufacturers to exclude allulose when calculating the amount of added sugars a product contains. Allulose is “approximately 70 percent as sweet as sucrose,” according to a comment FDA received, and “does not have the metabolic properties of fructose or other sugars and…
-
Consumer Reports Tests Bottled Water for Arsenic
Consumer Reports has published an article detailing its purported findings from a series of tests on several brands of bottled water, reportedly finding some bottles with levels of arsenic that could be “potentially dangerous to drink over extended periods of time.” Most samples apparently tested below the federal limit of 10 parts per billion (ppb);…
-
FDA Releases Guidance on Initiating Voluntary Recalls
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft guidance on initiating voluntary recalls of food and other agency-regulated products. The guidance discusses (i) “what preparations firms in a distribution chain, including manufacturers and distributors, should consider making to establish recall initiation procedures”; (ii) “preparations firm in the distribution channel should consider making to…
-
FSMA, Prop. 65 and Supply Chain Issues Among Subjects of Food Law Conference
In-house and outside counsel joined representatives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Chicago for the American Conference Institute’s Food Law Conference on April 9-11, 2019. The conference covered a number of key topics, including the impact of Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) implementation,…