In This Issue:

- Recent Significant Developments and Rulings

..Court Denies Class Certification in Class Action Suit Against Ben & Jerry’s

..FDA Declines to Revise Policy on “Natural” Food Labels

..Court Not Sweet on Plaintiffs’ Sugar Free Gum Class Action Complaint

..Court Denies Summary Judgment in Mislabeled “Antioxidant” Tea Case

- New Filings

- Excerpt from Court Denies Class Certification in Class Action Suit Against Ben & Jerry’s:

The judge presiding over Astiana v. Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, No. 10cv4387 (N.D. Cal.) denied the plaintiff’s motion for class certification, finding that plaintiff had failed to establish the requisite ascertainability or commonality under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a) and predominance under FRCP 23(b). The case deals with consumers who purchased ice cream labeled “all natural” but contained chocolate alkalized with “synthetic” ingredients. The court explained that plaintiff offered no way to determine which products contained “synthetic” alkali as opposed to natural, and further offered no way to show that other class members shared named plaintiff’s concern over “synthetic” alkali. The court therefore found that plaintiff had not established that her claims were typical, in large part because she had not identified an ascertainable class. The court further found that named plaintiff had failed to establish a class-wide manner of awarding damages based on her price-inflation theory, which would have required evidence that consumers paid more for products containing “natural” alkalized cocoa.