Food & Beverage Litigation & Regulatory Update

Tag: marketing

  • Whole Foods’ “No Antibiotics, Ever” Campaign Misled Consumers, Plaintiffs Allege

    A group of California consumers and an animal welfare nonprofit have filed a putative class action against Whole Foods, alleging the grocer misled consumers about whether its beef products were truly antibiotic-free. Safari v. Whole Foods Market, Inc., No. 22-01562 (C.D. Cal., filed Aug. 23, 2022). The plaintiffs alleged that Whole Foods’ “No Antibiotics, Ever” slogan…

  • Portman Group Upholds Wine Complaint

    The Portman Group, the U.K. alcohol industry’s self-regulatory authority, has upheld a complaint against Trinchero Family Estates for its Ménage à Trois Midnight wine. Zenith Global brought a complaint arguing that the wine’s name and marketing copy may breach the code by creating links between the product and sexual activity or sexual success. The panel…

  • CSPI Releases Report on Children’s Food Marketing

    The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has released a report on television ads targeting children with food marketing. The organization assessed the advertisements shown during six hours of television airing on 12 channels that show children’s programming and compared the results to a similar assessment from 2012. The comparison purportedly showed that…

  • Legal Ins and Outs of Food Advertising

    Shook Partner Lindsey Heinz and Associate Elizabeth Fessler discuss the regulatory and legal implications of food advertising, especially through social media, in the podcast available below. What types of scientific substantiation do companies need to supply for labeling claims, particularly those related to health and safety? Do the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and…

  • PHAI Publishes Issue Brief on Viral Marketing to Children

    The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Eating Research program, has released a legal issue brief titled “It’s Not Just for Teens: Viral Marketing to Young Children.” Intended as a guide for state attorneys general and claiming that “[f]ood marketers are in the forefront of using viral marketing…