SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – Class action lawyers have filed a lawsuit over veggie burgers that is “simply not plausible,” a federal judge has ruled in dismissing it.
Judge William Orrick, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, on Jan. 19 tossed claims against Kellogg Sales Company that using the word “veggie” on its products conveys to consumers that they contain vegetables.
Kellogg’s argued “veggie” signals to consumers the absence of meat. Orrick found that no reasonable consumer could feel otherwise.
“As the dictionary definition relied on by plaintiff demonstrates (not to mention the dictionary definitions relied on by defendant), the term VEGGIE can be used to describe a vegetarian product or the presence of vegetables,” Orrick wrote. “There is no allegation that defendant’s packaging or marketing otherwise conveyed the presence of vegetables in the product.
“This is one of the rare cases where it is implausible at the pleading stage that a reasonable consumer would be deceived by the defendant’s packaging or marketing; the case should be dismissed for that reason.”
Orrick did give lawyers Paul Joseph and Jack Fitzgerald a chance to amend their complaint, which takes aim at the Kellogg’s Morningstar brand of veggie products like burgers and hot dogs.
Kellogg’s argued its and others’ veggie burgers are made of ingredients like beans, mushrooms and brown rice – a “limitless variety of plant-based ingredients.”
The lawsuit claims it is misleading to call Morningstar foods “veggie” because the predominant ingredients in all of them are grains and oils.
The first three ingredients in veggie dogs are water, wheat gluten and corn syrup solids, for example. The suit claimed Kellogg’s is violating both federal food labeling laws and California Health and Safety Code.