Near East Rice Pilaf Excessive Slack Fill in Box Class Action

Early on, the complaint for this class action alleges, “The average consumer spends 13 seconds making an in-store purchasing decision.” At issue is Golden Grain Company’s Near East brand Rice Pilaf Original Mix, which the complaint alleges is only 33% filled with rice pilaf, with 66% empty space.

Two classes have been proposed for this action:

• The Missouri Class is all persons in Missouri who bought the product during the applicable statutes of limitations.
• The Consumer Fraud Multi-State Class is all persons in Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, West Virginia, Kansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, and Utah who bought the product during the applicable statutes of limitations.

Consumers choose food items on superficial bases, the complaint claims: “Faced with a large[r] and a smaller box, consumers choose the larger box, thinking it is a better value.”

Page 2 of the complaint shows two boxes of the rice pilaf product side by side. The one on the left is a whole box, showing the product’s front label. The one on the right has been cut away to show the interior, with only around a third of the box filled with the dried rice pilaf and the rest empty space, known as slack fill. The complaint alleges, “Consumers are misled into believing that they are purchasing substantially more rice pilaf then they receive.”

At times, products may need slack fill for a particular purpose. However, the complaint alleges that none of these purposes apply to the rice pilaf product:

• The rice pilaf does not need the empty space to protect it from damage, as, for example, potato chips do.
• The machines used to enclose the rice pilaf do not need the extra space to perform their function.
• The extra space does not come from unavoidable settling during shipping and handling.
• The extra space is not needed to perform a specific function, such as helping to cook the rice pilaf.
• The box is not a resealable container and does not have its own value apart from the rice pilaf.
• There is no problem in either increasing the amount of rice pilaf contained or decreasing the size of the box, for example, to ensure that the product can be labeled with all required information.
• There is no need to make the box larger than the amount of product contained in it, for example, to discourage pilfering.

Since the empty space in the box does not fulfill one of these functions, the complaint alleges, it is nonfunctional slack fill.

The complaint claims that the company could be less deceptive if it had a clear window or a fill line. However, the complaint claims, that “the only line is beneath [the words] ‘Rice Pilaf Mix’ and above ‘Original[,]’” but “this line is twice as high as the actual level of rice pilaf.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Deceptive Advertising, Deceptive Labels, Excessive Slack Fill