Conagra – the maker of Van de Kamp’s and Mrs. Paul’s frozen seafood products – is fighting back against a class action lawsuit claiming the company is short-weighting fish and mislabeling its products.
The class action complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago on 11 June, alleges Conagra “pumps up” its fish with the industrial filler sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP), which “may then ooze out as a white goo when the fish is cooked.” As a result of the addition, plaintiffs claim Conagra’s labels indicating the products are made with “100 percent Whole Fish” are inaccurate.
“STPP, a suspected neurotoxin, is typically used to manufacture things like rubber, paint, and antifreeze,” Plaintiffs Cindy Pappert, William Martin, and Catherine Foster said. “STPP also is used by unscrupulous businesses in the seafood industry to engage in short-weighting. That is the case here.”
In new filings submitted 23 August, Conagra asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit and its class action status, claiming the allegations lack any merit and that the plaintiffs can’t prove they have any standing in the case. The plaintiffs also fail to plausibly allege that Conagra – as opposed to fish processors generally – engages in the practice of short-weighting, the filings state.
“Plaintiffs’ complaint unleashes a sea-full of rhetoric about ‘seafood fraud,’ ‘misidentification and substitution of fish species,’ ‘short-weighting’ and ‘eutrophication of fresh water sources,’” the filing states. “But, plaintiffs fail to assert a single plausible claim for relief.”
According to the motion to dismiss, the plaintiffs “never provide a link from their outlandish allegations of generalized ‘seafood fraud’ to the fish fillets used in Conagra’s products – much less actual products purchased by plaintiffs,” Conagra said.
The plaintiff claims that the company’s “100 percent Whole Fish” labels are misleading are also without merit because the same boxes with the supposedly misleading labels are on products that clearly contain ingredients other than fish, the filing states.
“That claim fails for numerous reasons, foremost of which is that ...
