Aleta Lilly v. Conagra Foods, Inc.

743 F.3d 662, 2014 WL 644706, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 3159
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 20, 2014
Docket12-55921
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 743 F.3d 662 (Aleta Lilly v. Conagra Foods, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aleta Lilly v. Conagra Foods, Inc., 743 F.3d 662, 2014 WL 644706, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 3159 (9th Cir. 2014).

Opinions

OPINION

SILVERMAN, Circuit Judge:

Some days we are called upon to consider such profound issues as eleventh-hour death penalty appeals, catastrophic threats to the environment, intense and existential questions of civil and human rights, and the most complicated, controversial problems in civil, criminal and administrative law. Today we consider the coating on sunflower seeds.

In her putative class action complaint, the plaintiff alleges that the tasty coating placed on sunflower seed shells is intended to be ingested — and is ingested — before the inedible shell is spat out and the kernel eaten; that is what is expected before expectoration. Therefore, the sodium content in a “serving” of sunflower seeds, as stated on the package, must include the sodium contained in the edible coating.

Taking those allegations as true for the purposes of a motion to dismiss, we hold today that the sodium content of the edible coating added to sunflower seed shells must, under federal law, be included in the nutritional information disclosed on a package of sunflower seeds. Because plaintiffs state-law claims, if successful, would impose no greater burden than those imposed by federal law, her state law claims are not preempted. We reverse the granting of the defendant’s motion to dismiss.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

ConAgra Foods, Inc. sells several varieties of sunflower seeds under its “David” [664]*664brand, including some in which the shells of the seeds are coated with salts, seasonings, and/or flavorings. Lilly sued ConA-gra as a representative of a class of consumers who purchase these seeds. Lilly’s central allegation was that ConAgra’s nutrition labeling violates California law by misrepresenting the sodium content of the sunflower seeds by focusing exclusively on the kernels. More specifically, Lilly alleged that the listing of sodium in the Nutrition Facts Panel of these seeds either does not disclose the sodium content of “the sunflower seeds and the shell in the Nutrition Facts at all” or does not state the “salt content of the sunflower kernels and shells in equal prominence as it does the salt content of the sunflower kernels.”-

Lilly alleged that “ConAgra’s Sunflower Seeds’ packages expressly state that the intended manner for consuming the Sunflower Seeds is to place the entire shell and the kernel in the mouth.” The complaint quoted the directions on the packaging itself: “[C]rack the shell with your teeth, eat the seed and spit the shell. Experienced seeders pop a handful of seeds in their mouth and store them in one cheek, then transfer a seed over to the other side -with their tongue, crack it, then eat the seed and split [sic] the shell.” Lilly alleged that consumers following these instructions “ingest some, if not all, of the sodium from the sunflower seeds’ shell which is not reflected in the Nutrition Facts of the Products.” Lilly alleged that minimizing or altogether ignoring the sodium content on the shells in the label is misleading and that ConAgra had a duty to disclose the sodium content of both the “Sunflower Seeds’ kernel and shell.”

Lilly asserted causes of action under three California statutes: the Consumer Legal Remedies Act (Cal. Civ.Code § 1750 et seq.), the False Advertising Laws (Cal. Bus. & Prof.Code § 17500 et seq.), and the Unfair Competition Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 et seq.). ConAgra moved to dismiss the complaint, arguing that federal law expressly preempted these state law claims as they would impose food labeling requirements different from those required by federal law. The district court agreed, ruling that Lilly sought “to impose an additional sodium labeling requirement that [was] not identical to the” Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (21 U.S.C. § 343) and thus her “state law claims [were] expressly preempted.” Lilly timely appealed.

DISCUSSION

We have jurisdiction to review this appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review an order granting a motion to dismiss de novo. Cousins v. Lockyer, 568 F.3d 1063, 1067 (9th Cir.2009). “All well-pleaded allegations of material fact in the complaint are accepted as true and are construed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party.” Faulkner v. ADT Sec. Servs., Inc., 706 F.3d 1017, 1019 (9th Cir.2013) (citations omitted). We also review questions of statutory interpretation and preemption de novo. Aguayo v. U.S. Bank, 653 F.3d 912, 917 (9th Cir.2011).

The statutory and regulatory framework undergirding this case is straightforward. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, 21 U.S.C. §§ 301 et seq., governs the labeling of food, drugs, cosmetic products and medical devices. Congress amended the FDCA in 1990 by enacting the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, which established uniform food labeling requirements, including the familiar and ubiquitous Nutrition Facts Panel found on most food packages. NLEA requires that a food’s label include the amount of sodium “in each serving size or other unit of measure.” 21 U.S.C. § 343(q)(l)(D). NLEA also provides that no state may “directly [665]*665or indirectly establish ... any requirement for the labeling of food that is not identical” to the federal requirements. 21 U.S.C. § 343;1(a)(5). The phrase “not identical to” means “that the State requirement directly or indirectly imposes obligations or contains provisions concerning the composition or labeling of food [that] ... [a]re not imposed by or contained in the applicable [federal regulation] ... or [d]iffer from those specifically imposed by or contained in the applicable [federal regulation].” 21 C.F.R. § 100.1(c)(4).

The United States Food and Drug Administration has promulgated various regulations that are relevant to how a serving of sodium is to be calculated. First, the regulations require that the “[n]utrition information relating to food shall be provided for all products intended for human consumption.” 21 C.F.R. § 101.9(a). Second, the “declaration of nutrient and food component content shall be on the basis of the food as packaged or purchased.” 21 C.F.R. § 101.9(b)(9). Lastly, and most importantly for our purposes, the amount of sodium in the food is “based on only the edible portion of food, and not bone, seed, shell, or other inedible components.” 21 C.F.R. § 101.12(a)(6).

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Bluebook (online)
743 F.3d 662, 2014 WL 644706, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 3159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aleta-lilly-v-conagra-foods-inc-ca9-2014.