Ninth Circuit Reverses Lower Court Decision On Trans Fat Labeling Class Action
Ninth Circuit Reverses Lower Court Decision On Trans Fat Labeling Class Action
On October 4, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the lower court’s ruling in Hawkins v. The Kroger Company, No. 3:15-cv-02320, holding that a “0g Trans Fat” claim on the front of a food label could be misleading to a reasonable consumer when the food contains even a nominal amount of trans fat. The Court found that the “rounding rules” that allow a manufacture to round down the amount of trans fat to “0” on the Nutrition Facts panel do not apply to trans fat claims made on the face of the label. In reversing the district court, the Ninth Circuit reemphasized its holding in Reid v. Johnson & Johnson that “a requirement to state certain facts in the nutrition label is not a license to make that statement elsewhere on the product.”
For more information on the Hawkins case, please click here.
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