Our weekly roundup aims to keep our readers up to date on recent notable rulings in the food & consumer packaged goods space.

  • Tara Amado v. The Procter & Gamble Co., No. 3:22-cv-05427-MMC (N.D. Cal. – June 8, 2023): The Northern District of California granted dismissal of a putative class action alleging defendant’s fiber-powder dietary supplement is not heart healthy as represented due to the amount of sugar it contains.The court held that plaintiff’s allegations failed as the numerous studies that plaintiff relied upon failed to support them. Further, the court ruled that plaintiff’s claims were preempted because the challenged claims were structure/function representations since they discuss the general effects of fiber on the human body, not the product at issue specifically. Opinion linked here.
  • Beth Peacock Muller v. Blue Diamond Growers, No. 4:22-cv-00707-RWS (E.D. Mo. – July 18, 2023): The Eastern District of Missouri court dismissed a putative class action alleging defendant deceived consumers by describing the flavor of its packaged almonds as “smokehouse” when in fact the flavor comes from artificial liquid smoke. The court held that the plaintiff’s consumer protection claim failed, finding that a reasonable consumer would not plausibly be misled by the challenged labeling statements, reasoning that the ingredient listing of “natural hickory smoke flavor” would cure any ambiguity. The court also noted that the product’s labeling did not describe the almonds as “smoked.” Opinion linked here.
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Photo of David T. Biderman David T. Biderman

David Biderman, a partner in Perkins Coie’s San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, focuses his practice on mass tort litigation and consumer class actions. He heads the firm’s Mass Tort and Consumer Litigation group. He has represented a wide variety of companies in…

David Biderman, a partner in Perkins Coie’s San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, focuses his practice on mass tort litigation and consumer class actions. He heads the firm’s Mass Tort and Consumer Litigation group. He has represented a wide variety of companies in state and federal courts in California for 30 years.

On consumer class actions, David represents packaged food companies, coffee companies, dairy companies, footwear companies and others whose nutritional or health claims have been challenged. He also has represented search engines and other online companies. He has a record of favorable results for clients. He successfully tried a major consumer fraud class action on behalf of one of the world’s major search engines in a case involving online gambling advertisements. For that same client, he negotiated a favorable settlement of a class action challenging its online advertising pricing. He represented a major coffee retailer in defeating a class action on standing grounds. He also has litigated pre-emption defenses arising out of food labeling and obtained a dismissal for a client whose nutritional statements were challenged.

For fifteen years, David managed the firm’s full-service product liability team responsible for defending over 1,000 toxic tort cases pending in Los Angeles and Northern California state courts. These cases entailed ongoing trial activity at various levels for several trials set each month. The highly experienced and well-coordinated team has handled thousands of asbestos toxic tort cases for a variety of clients, including FORTUNE 500 companies from such industries as consumer products, aerospace manufacturing, household goods, dry cleaning and industries that generate electromagnetic fields, such as electric utilities and operators of wireless communications systems.

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Photo of Tommy Tobin Tommy Tobin

Thomas Tobin’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and class action matters involving statutory, constitutional, and regulatory issues in a range of industries, including food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, and cannabis. In the food and beverage sector, Tommy has experience defending false…

Thomas Tobin’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and class action matters involving statutory, constitutional, and regulatory issues in a range of industries, including food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, and cannabis. In the food and beverage sector, Tommy has experience defending false advertising claims and consumer protection claims for well-known international corporations.

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