Marie Callender Class Action Lawsuit Says Baking Mixes Aren’t ‘All Natural’

A California customer has filed a class action lawsuit against Marie Callender’s Pie Shops Inc., alleging the company falsely advertises its cooking mix products as “all natural” when they allegedly contain a synthetic ingredient.

The predominant issue in the Marie Callender’s class action lawsuit is the use of sodium acid pyrophosphate (SAPP), a chemical that must be created synthetically. According to the complaint, SAPP has various applications, including facilitating hair removal in hog slaughter, feather removal from birds in poultry slaughter, and in petroleum products.

“Not only is SAPP a synthetic ingredient, but excessive use can lead to imbalanced levels of minerals in the body and bone loss,” the Marie Callender class action lawsuit claims.

The Marie Callender products that allegedly contain this ingredient are:

• Marie Callender’s Original Corn Bread Mix
• Marie Callender’s Cord Bread Muffin Mix
• Marie Callender’s All Purpose Biscuit Mix
• Marie Callender’s Sweet Potato Muffin Mix
• Marie Callender’s Honey Butter Corn Bread and Muffin Mix
• Marie Callender’s Multigrain Muffin Mix

Lead plaintiff Edward Musgrave alleges that due to the allegedly deceptive labeling of the products, he suffered an economic injury because he otherwise would not have purchased the Marie Callender’s products.

The Marie Callender’s class action lawsuit is brought on behalf of a proposed nationwide class and a proposed California class of consumers who purchased Marie Callender’s food products that were labeled “all natural,” yet contained Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate on or after May 1, 2010. The key questions are whether or not the company was aware that by using SAPP, its products could not be considered all natural, and further whether or not it violated various state statutes regardless of the alleged negligent misrepresentation.

The class action lawsuit comes on the heels of a growing number of food mislabeling class action lawsuits filed mainly in federal courts in California that focus predominantly on two areas: the use of the phrase “evaporated cane juice” in ingredient lists as well as whether or not the use of certain substances are enough to prevent the use of “all-natural” in advertising. The FDA is currently hearing comments regarding whether or not food labels should be allowed to use these terms. Further, the Supreme Court is expected to decide about the viability of private litigation on these issues in general.

Musgrave and the putative plaintiffs are represented by class action lawyer Molly A. DeSario of Scott Cole & Associates APC.

The Marie Callender False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Edward Musgrave, et al. v. Marie Callender’s Pie Shops, et al., Case No. 14-cv-02006, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.