Pepperidge Farm Golden Butter Cracker Class Action Lawsuit Tossed

Pepperidge Farm Golden Butter Cracker Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

• Who: Pepperidge Farm has dodged a false advertising class action lawsuit.
• Why: A US federal judge tossed the suit, which alleged the company overstated the role of butter in its Golden Butter crackers, saying that butter was the second ingredient in the crackers and no reasonable consumer would be deceived by the labeling.
• Where: The class action was litigated in New York.

Pepperidge Farm dodged a class action lawsuit accusing the company of overstating the role of butter in its Golden Butter crackers after a New York federal judge pointed out butter is the second listed ingredient in the crackers and “predominates over other fats or oils.”

US District Judge P. Kevin Castel rejected lead plaintiff Hawa Kamara’s false advertising class action lawsuit in full, leaving no room to amend, saying the packaging of the crackers accurately indicated that the product contained butter and that no reasonable consumer would need to scrutinize fine print to understand the truth behind the packaging claim.

“A reasonable consumer who encountered the defendant’s packaging would accurately understand the ‘Golden Butter’ cracker to be shortened and flavored with butter,” Castel wrote.

“The Complaint does not plausibly allege why a reasonable consumer also would believe that the use of butter precluded secondary usage of other fats or oils, either as an additional shortener or for external application to enhance the crackers’ appearance.”

Pepperidge Farm Consumers Expected More Butter, Claimed Class Action Lawsuit

Kamara said in her 2020 class action that the presence of vegetable oils in the crackers rendered the “Golden Butter” packaging misleading or deceptive “because a reasonable consumer would have falsely concluded that the crackers were ‘all or predominantly made with butter.’”

Castel, citing a number of other similar cases, disagreed with Kamara’s argument and dismissed the case in full.

“The complaint does not plausibly allege why a reasonable consumer would understand the phrase ‘Golden Butter’ to mean that ‘wherever butter could be used in the product, it would be used instead of using its synthetic substitute, vegetable oil.'”

Recently, Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc. dodged a similar class action lawsuit that alleged false advertising of its Entenmann’s All Butter Loaf Cake. Another federal judge concluded that the “All Butter” label was “ambiguous” and no reasonable consumer would assume the cake was entirely made of butter.

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The lead plaintiff is represented by Spencer Sheehan of Sheehan & Associates PC.

The Pepperidge Golden Butter False Ad Class Action Lawsuit is Kamara v. Pepperidge Farm Inc., Case No. 1:20-cv-09012, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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