Lawyers of Big Tobacco Lawsuits Take Aim at Food Industry

[alp227]

Don Barrett, a Mississippi lawyer, took in hundreds of millions of dollars a decade ago after suing Big Tobacco and winning record settlements from R. J. Reynolds, Philip Morris and other cigarette makers. So did Walter Umphrey, Dewitt M. Lovelace and Stuart and Carol Nelkin.

Ever since, the lawyers have been searching for big paydays in business, scoring more modest wins against car companies, drug makers, brokerage firms and insurers. Now, they have found the next target: food manufacturers.

More than a dozen lawyers who took on the tobacco companies have filed 25 cases against industry players like ConAgra Foods, PepsiCo, Heinz, General Mills and Chobani that stock pantry shelves and refrigerators across America.

The suits, filed over the last four months, assert that food makers are misleading consumers and violating federal regulations by wrongly labeling products and ingredients. While they join a barrage of litigation against the industry in recent years, the group of tobacco lawyers is moving aggressively. They are asking a federal court in California to halt ConAgra's sales of Pam cooking spray, Swiss Miss cocoa products and some Hunt's canned tomatoes.

...

In recent weeks, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has filed two lawsuits against General Mills and McNeil Nutritionals over their claims on Nature Valley and Splenda Essentials products, and warned Welch's it would sue unless the company changed the wording on its juice and fruit snacks. The Federal Trade Commission won settlements from companies like Dannon and Pom Wonderful for claims about the health benefits of their products. PepsiCo and Coca-Cola face dozens of lawsuits over claims that their orange juice products are "100% natural."

Full: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/business/lawyers-of-big-tobacco-lawsuits-take-aim-at-food-industry.xml

Libertarians will tell you the free market will decide what is best for consumers. Has it?

[matt819]

1. Have it at

Along these lines, did you realize that Raisin Bran has more sugar than Froot Loops?

It pays to read labels. I didn't know that about Pam, for example, and will dig deeper on the cooking spray I've been using.

This can be helpful. For example, I learned that my grocery store's premium store brand meats were supplied by a meat processor who obtains his meat from more than 200 family farms in Maine. It's not Cargill or Con-Agra, and the only way to find out these things is to ask questions.

Now, as for product labeling, it sure can get ridiculous. I was in the grocery store today, where they had "cultivated blueberries" on sale. Yes, I realize that this is as opposed to wild blueberries, but I can't imagine any store selling wild blueberries. So labeling gets pretty iffy.

Now you see evaporated cane juice. Sure sounds like sugar.

Corn syrup? Sounds much healthier than high fructose corn syrup.