Plaintiff Asks for Crisco Class Action Certification

The plaintiff who filed the false advertising class action lawsuit against J.M. Smucker is asking a New York federal judge to certify a class of New York residents who were allegedly deceived by the phrase “all natural” on the labels of its Crisco cooking oils.

The motion for class certification was filed by plaintiff Adrianna Ault, who is asking the court to certify a class of New Yorkers who purchased at least one bottle of Crisco cooking oil: “Crisco Pure Vegetable Oil and/or Crisco Pure Corn Oil between Feb. 15, 2009 and June 1, 2014; and/or Crisco Natural Blend Oil between June 1, 2010 and June 1, 2014.”

“Smucker labeled every bottle of its Crisco Pure Vegetable Oil, Crisco Pure Canola Oil, Crisco Pure Corn Oil and Crisco Natural Blend Oil . . . as ‘All Natural,'” Ault explained in the motion. She claims that Smucker began labeling the oils as “All Natural” in 2002, when the company acquired the Crisco brand.

“By branding the cooking oils in this way, Smucker was able to charge more for a fungible product that was otherwise indistinguishable in the marketplace,” she added.

Ault alleges that the Crisco cooking oils are made with crops that are made from genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which “are not all natural; neither are products that are so heavily processed they bear no chemical resemblance to the ingredients from which they derive.”

She explains that “industry, government and health organizations define GM crops as having been altered in a way that ‘does not occur naturally.'”

In addition, Ault alleges that the chemical process that the plants undergo to create the cooking oils “bear little to no resemblance to their source crops.”

She claims that Smucker has violated the New York General Business Law through the false claims made about the cooking oils on its labels.

Ault argues in her motion for class certification that “the issue to be decided — whether the cooking oils are ‘All Natural’ — lends itself to a class wide resolution.”

In addition, she is asking for injunctive relief, according to the New York law, which she says “is inherently class wide relief.”

“Plaintiff can present class wide evidence demonstrating that all class members paid more for the falsely branded products because of the deceptive ‘All Natural’ representation,” the motion to certify the Crisco class action lawsuit contends.

The Crisco false advertising class action lawsuit was filed in May 2013.

Smucker tried to have the Crisco class action lawsuit dismissed, saying that the matter should really go before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) not through the court system.

However, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty ruled in May that the all natural class action lawsuit would continue because the FDA has not made a statement about “when products can be labeled ‘all natural’ . . . and is not likely to do so in the near future.”

Ault is represented by Bruce D. Greenberg, Mayra V. Tarantino and Jeffrey A. Shooman of Lite DePalma Greenberg LLC; Tina Wolfson and Robert Ahdoot of Ahdoot & Wolfson PC; and Timothy G. Blood, Thomas J. O’Reardon II and Leslie E. Hurst of Blood Hurst O’Reardon LLP.

J.M. Smucker is represented by Kenneth K. Lee and Dean N. Panos of Jenner & Block LLP.

The Crisco All Natural Class Action Lawsuit is Ault v. J.M. Smucker Co. et al., Case No. 1:13-cv-03409, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.