Walmart, Kraft Must Face 100% Parmesan Cheese Class Action

Walmart and Kraft must face class action lawsuit claims that there is wood pulp in their grated parmesan cheese, while claims that their “100% Grated Parmesan Cheese” labeling is false advertising have been tossed by a federal judge.

On Nov. 1, a federal judge determined that only some of the allegations in a Kraft, Walmart parmesan cheese multidistrict litigation will move forward.

The judge decided to dismiss consumer claims that because the parmesan cheese allegedly included wood pulp as an anti-clumping agent and a filler, the containers should not be labeled as being made of “nothing but real cheese.”

However, the judge did preserve the allegation that the cheese is deceptively labeled because it contains too much of the wood pulp anti-clumping agent.

The Kraft parmesan cheese multidistrict litigation is the result of 16 class action lawsuits that were consolidated.

Originally, the class action lawsuits were consolidated into three separate multidistrict litigations, but plaintiffs from eight of the cases moved to consolidated the claims into a single multidistrict litigation.

The consumers are aiming to hold Kraft liable for alleged misrepresentation, as well as retailers including Walmart and Albertsons.

In the latest iteration of the parmesan cheese class action allegations, the consumers amended their claims to specifically allege that Kraft, Walmart, and Albertsons had misrepresented the cheese by claiming that cellulose, allegedly from wood pulp was use only as an anti-clumping agent, when in reality, it was used as a filler.

Reportedly, the amount of cellulose present in the cheese is more than what is required to prevent caking.

The plaintiffs further claim that the cheese is mislabeled because it’s marketed as being “100% grated parmesan cheese,” but in reality, it includes non-cheese ingredients.

However, the court tossed this claim on the grounds that “no reasonable consumer” would think that the product was only cheese, given that an ingredient list was included, and the ingredient list mentions items other than cheese.

Earlier this year, the court determined that reasonable consumers would not believe that the product contained only cheese because it is sold in non-refrigerated shelves.

According to the court, this context suggests to consumers that the product contains a preservative or other non-cheese ingredients.

The plaintiffs then appealed this decision, pointing to a consumer survey to back up their claim that consumers would be misled.

The consumer survey allegedly indicated that the “the vast majority of purchasers” believed that the product contained only cheese.

Nonetheless, the court rejected the motion for amending the allegation to support the claim, and again rejected the “100% cheese” claim.

The consumers are represented by Langone Batson & Lavery LLC, Barnow and Associates PC, Levi & Korsinsky LLP, Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz, Keller Rohrback LLP, The Driscoll Firm, The Morris Firm PLLC, Goldberg Segalla, The Sultzer Law Group PC, Bock Hatch Lewis & Oppenheim LLC, JTB Law Group LLC, Alexander Jan-Yura Korolinsky, Wright & Schulte LLC, Finkelstein Blankinship Frei-Pearson & Garber LLP, Carlson Lynch Sweet & Kilpela LLP, Audet & Partners LLP, Levin Sedran & Berman, The Wilner Firm PA, Reinhardt Wendorf & Blanchfield, Larson King LLP, Clifford Law Offices PC, Zimmerman Law Offices PC, Bursor & Fisher PA, McGuire Law PC, Laminack Pirtle & Martines, Kanuru Law Group PC, The Wilner Firm PA, Howard & Associates, Grey Tesh, William C. Wright Law Offices, Pomerantz LLP, Shepherd Finkelman Miller & Shah, Fox Rothschild LLP, and Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe LLP.

The Kraft, Walmart, Albertsons’ Parmesan Cheese False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is In re: 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, MDL No. 2705, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.