Personal Injury Law

HFCS Labeling Case: Opening The Floodgates For New Consumer Claims?

By Kenneth Odza

The Third Circuit may be close to opening the floodgates of claims against food and beverage manufacturers who use high-fructose corn syrup ('HFCS') in products labeled 'all natural.' Shannon Duffy at the Legal Intelligencer reported recently on a 'lively hour-long' oral argument in the Third Circuit about reversing a District Court's dismissal of state consumer claims against Snapple for use of HFSC.

The District Court dismissed the consumer claims in 2007 on the basis of field preemption. The dismissal predated the Third Circuit's decision in Fellner v. Tri-Union Seafood, LLC. See our previous blog on the Fellner case. Despite the FDA's position in Fellner that a state law failure-to-warn claim is preempted by federal law, the Third Circuit ruled to the contrary.

In Fellner, a claim by a person who suffered from mercury poisoning after eating canned tuna literally for breakfast, lunch and dinner for five years may have been an outlier. But reversal of the District Court's decision in the Snapple case will open the floodgates to consumer class action claims against a whole slew of food sellers and manufacturers.

Full post as published by Food Liability Law Blog on July 07, 2009 (boomark / email).