(CN) — The Eastern District Court of California ruled Thursday it will not dismiss a national food company’s lawsuit that contends an individual and a company have filed a "sham" lawsuit over a naturally occurring chemical in baked goods.
The litigation between B&G Foods North America, Inc. and defendants Kim Embry and Environmental Health Advocates, Inc. is a battle over California chemical disclosure rules commonly known as “Proposition 65.”
B&G sold devil’s food cookie cakes and chocolate crème sandwich cookies across the nation. The products contained acrylamide, a naturally occurring byproduct in all baking.
Acrylamide is found in baked or fried goods like french fries, potato chips, donuts and some tobacco products. The chemical has also been identified in other products considered healthier, including almonds and coffee.
California has included acrylamide on its list of “known” carcinogens regulated by Proposition 65, which imposes requirements of warning labels on the packaging of foods and drinks that contain chemicals on this list. More than 1,000 products fall under the requirements.
B&G points to the defendants’ Proposition 65 litigation being a sham, including violating the First Amendment.
B&G claims the defendants’ laboratory of choice to test samples utilized unreliable methods, which in fact produced false results, and then destroyed those samples so they could not be retested.
The company claims the defendants made false statements, saying...
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