CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (Legal Newsline) - We never promised whole grains, Pepperidge Farm is telling a federal court as it fights a class action over the marketing of its Harvest Wheat crackers.
The company on Jan. 3 filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit of plaintiff Angela Cheah, who filed suit June 20 in New York federal court. She complains that the crackers contain enriched wheat flour rather than whole wheat flour.
That is unreasonable, she says, because the box leads customers to believe the crackers are made with whole grains.
"Where grains and wheat are described with the term 'harvest'... consumers expect a product which is mostly whole grain," the suit says.
"This is because the word 'harvest' is defined and understood as 'the process or period of gathering in crops.'"
Pepperidge Farm says any customer concerned with whole vs. enriched wheat flour could simply check the ingredients list on the back of the box.
"(P)laintiff's entire theory of deception is based on her own idiosyncratic and unsupported subjective assumptions about the meaning of the words 'harvest' and 'wheat,'" the motion says.
The motion cites a 2004 ruling from Massachusetts that says consumer protection statutes depend "on the likely reaction of a reasonable consumer rather than an ignoramus."
Spencer Sheehan is representing the plaintiff. Dale Giali and Ker Borders of King & Spalding represent Pepperidge Farm.