|
I_Fart_Blue
Stranger

Registered: 06/25/02
Posts: 3,495
Loc: SItting on the Group W Be...
Last seen: 20 years, 4 months
|
Suit seeks ban on Oreo cookies
#1545183 - 05/13/03 01:00 PM (21 years, 11 days ago) |
|
|
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/05/13/oreo.suit.reut/index.html
SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- A lawyer who has spent much of his life enjoying Oreo cookies has sued Kraft Foods Inc. seeking to ban the much-loved cookies in California because they contain trans fat, an ingredient he calls inedible.
Kraft boasts that people have eaten 450 billion Oreo cookies since they introduced the chocolate wafer sandwich cookies with a creamy filling in 1912.
But if British-born attorney Stephen Joseph has his way, that culinary love affair will come to an end, at least until Kraft stops using hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils to make the cookies.
Kraft calls the suit filed in Marin County Superior Court just north of San Francisco baseless but Joseph says he is taking advantage of a provision of the California civil code that holds manufacturers liable for common products if not "known to be unsafe by the ordinary consumer."
The ingredient is used in thousands and thousands of products. In an interview on Monday, Joseph said, "I am probably full of hydrogenated fat because until two years ago I didn't know about it. I resent the fact that I have been eating that stuff all my life."
Hydrogenation adds hydrogen gas to vegetable oil, helping to solidify it into products such as margarine. Health experts say the process makes them as unhealthy as real butter, if not more so, as the hydrogenated fats act like cholesterol in the body. Trans fats are common in cookies and crackers and part of both the cookie and filling in Oreos.
'Shocking' case "That's what's so shocking; that it has been so well hidden," said Joseph, who has set up an advocacy group called BanTransFats.com Inc. "I hope if nothing else comes of this lawsuit that more people know about trans fat than before."
Kraft says it is already testing alternatives to trans fats but said they will vigorously fight the lawsuit.
Its parent company Altria Group Inc. is also the owner of cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, itself no stranger to legal battles over product safety.
"We know the importance of good nutrition and we are committed to helping people lead a healthy lifestyle, but we have no choice than to draw the line against baseless lawsuits like this," Michael Mudd, Kraft's senior vice president for corporate affairs, said in an interview.
"We've been ... exploring ways to reduce trans fat in Oreos and those efforts are continuing," he continued. "You can make a cookie without trans fat but what you're trading off is the unique taste and texture that people have come to expect."
U.S. companies, the world masters in processed foods, are showing an awareness of trans fats. Frito-Lay, part of PepsiCo Inc., announced last year it would eliminate trans fats from snacks such as Doritos. McDonald's Corp. also said it would make French fries with less trans fat.
In February, a federal court threw out a lawsuit against McDonald's that claimed its burgers and fries cause obesity.
The commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said the agency will soon require labeling information about trans fats in foods
-------------------- "A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind. I do not know which makes a man more conservative-to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past." -John Maynard Keynes
|
DazedSol
old hand

Registered: 08/01/01
Posts: 1,230
|
Re: Suit seeks ban on Oreo cookies [Re: I_Fart_Blue]
#1545265 - 05/13/03 01:30 PM (21 years, 11 days ago) |
|
|
Very very interesting........
ALOT of things have those trans fats in them.....
-------------------- Peace, Adam
|
zeta
Stranger

Registered: 05/24/02
Posts: 3,972
|
Re: Suit seeks ban on Oreo cookies [Re: I_Fart_Blue]
#1553433 - 05/16/03 04:34 AM (21 years, 9 days ago) |
|
|
Solution: don't eat them
|
Seuss
Error: divide byzero


Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 3 months, 8 days
|
Re: Suit seeks ban on Oreo cookies [Re: I_Fart_Blue]
#1553476 - 05/16/03 06:31 AM (21 years, 9 days ago) |
|
|
I think we need to change the way lawsuits work in the US. The amount of damages should be set at the start of the suit and not settlements should be allowed once it goes to trial. Once the trial starts, whoever loses has to pay whoever wins for the damages, even if the loser is the person that brought suit. The lawyers that represent a plaintiff should be just as liable for paying out damages on a loss as the plaintiff they represent.
I bet this would put a quick end to all these stupid lawsuits that have no purpose other than to try and 'get rick quick' at somebody elses expense.
I am tired of hearing this kind of stupidity... oh, I didn't know smoking causes cancer... give me money. Oh, I didn't know fast food makes me fat, give me money... oh, I didn't know processed cookies can be bad for me, give me money... oh, I didn't know coffee is hot and can burn me, give me money... oh, I didn't know using a lawmoer as a hedge trimmer could cut off my fingers, give me money...
We should not be rewarding people for being stupid. When people win these cases it takes away from the cases that companies should be held accountable for.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
|
motaman
old hand

Registered: 12/18/02
Posts: 6,048
Last seen: 2 days, 23 hours
|
Re: Suit seeks ban on Oreo cookies [Re: I_Fart_Blue]
#1553823 - 05/16/03 11:16 AM (21 years, 8 days ago) |
|
|
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/newreply.php?Cat=&Board=News&Number=1545183&page=0&view=collapsed&what=showflat&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1
Lawsuit dropped as Oreo looks to drop the fat
Wednesday, May 14, 2003 Posted: 8:46 PM EDT (0046 GMT) SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- A lawsuit seeking to ban Kraft Foods from selling Oreos to children because the chocolate-cream cookies are allegedly unhealthy will be dropped, the San Francisco lawyer who filed the suit said Wednesday.
Stephen Joseph's suit alleged that Oreos are unhealthy because they contain trans fat, which the National Academy of Sciences has linked to heart disease.
Joseph said he will drop his lawsuit because he has learned that Kraft is working on ways to reduce trans fat in Oreos.
Kraft spokesman Michael Mudd confirmed the company has been working on ways to reduce trans fat in the cookie, including introducing a reduced fat version now on the market.
"This is not something that we've just started" in response to Joseph's lawsuit, he said.
"We're very pleased with Mr. Joseph's decision. We share his concern for public health, and we're doing our part," Mudd said.
Kraft boasts that people have eaten 450 billion Oreo cookies since they introduced the chocolate wafer sandwich cookies with a creamy filling in 1912.
Joseph aimed to force Kraft to stop using hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils to make the cookies.
He called Kraft's move to reduce trans fat in Oreos "a home run" in efforts to make the public more aware of the problem of trans fats in food products, as well as what he termed their "extremely negative effects" on human health.
Joseph said very few parents are aware that the partially hydrogenated soybean oil used as an ingredient in Oreos is a trans fat.
The ingredient is used in thousands and thousands of products. In an interview with CNN Monday, Joseph said, "I am probably full of hydrogenated fat because until two years ago I didn't know about it. I resent the fact that I have been eating that stuff all my life."
Hydrogenation adds hydrogen gas to vegetable oil, helping to solidify it into products such as margarine. Health experts say the process makes them as unhealthy as real butter, if not more so, as the hydrogenated fats act like cholesterol in the body. Trans fats are common in cookies and crackers and part of both the cookie and filling in Oreos.
Frito-Lay, part of PepsiCo Inc., announced last year it would eliminate trans fats from snacks such as Doritos. McDonald's Corp. also said it would make french fries with less trans fat.
In February, a federal court threw out a lawsuit against McDonald's that claimed its burgers and fries cause obesity.
The commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said the agency will soon require labeling information about trans fats in foods.
-------------------- http://heffter.org
|
daba
Stranger


Registered: 12/30/02
Posts: 3,881
Last seen: 11 years, 4 months
|
Re: Suit seeks ban on Oreo cookies [Re: motaman]
#1555746 - 05/17/03 05:15 AM (21 years, 8 days ago) |
|
|
People are always looking for things to do. But a war on Oreos? Give me a break.
|
Seuss
Error: divide byzero


Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 3 months, 8 days
|
Re: Suit seeks ban on Oreo cookies [Re: daba]
#1555776 - 05/17/03 06:14 AM (21 years, 8 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
People are always looking for things to do. But a war on Oreos? Give me a break.
At least he wasn't in the 'get rich quick' crowd as I had assumed. Hmmm... that just gave me an idea... if everybody were to file suit against the governement for mental anguish due to the war on drugs, seeking unspecified damagers for stress caused by being forced to live in a constant state of war, we could probably cause enough ripples to be heard if nothing else.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
|
Baby_Hitler
Errorist



Registered: 03/06/02
Posts: 27,660
Loc: To the limit!
Last seen: 2 hours, 17 minutes
|
Re: Suit seeks ban on Oreo cookies [Re: Seuss]
#1558218 - 05/18/03 05:17 PM (21 years, 6 days ago) |
|
|
"Hydrogenated fat" = Shortening
If marijuana were a person, it could successfully sue the government for slander.
-------------------- This space for rent
|
|