Minor Cannabinoids: Exploring the Science, Legality, & Opportunities
The Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine and the Food, Beverage and Agribusiness Industry — What You Need to Know
Podcast: Non-binding Guidance: FDA’s Regulation of Products Containing CBD
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently upheld New York City's prohibition on steeped kava beverages, concluding that steeping kava root in water constitutes the creation of an unapproved "food...more
In the March edition of For Your Consumption, our food & beverage digest of court cases and litigation trends affecting the food, beverage, agribusiness, and cosmetics industries, there’s nothing natural about beavers’ anal...more
On March 10, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that U.S. Secretary of HHS Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to explore closing the GRAS...more
2025 will be a transformational year for the beverage and food industry, which has already been dramatically impacted by shifting market trends and profound policy changes. Here are the top five topics influencing the...more
After years of talk, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in mid-December 2024 at last finalized an updated definition of the implied nutrient content claim "healthy." The original definition of "healthy" dates back to the...more
A recent opinion from the Northern District of Illinois may dampen the prospects of plaintiffs seeking to challenge the labeling of bottled water and other beverages based on the alleged presence of microplastics....more
After formulating an exciting new healthy food or beverage, the packaging it comes in may feel like an afterthought. It should not be. Food packaging has become an increasingly hot topic among federal and state regulators,...more
PERKINS COIE IS PLEASED TO PUBLISH ITS Q4 FOOD AND CPG LEGAL TRENDS REPORT. This report is a bite-sized version of our annual year in review, providing timely insights on trends so far this year. In Q4 2023, the Consumer...more
In the world of healthy food and beverages, a crucial first step towards bringing a new product to the crowded U.S. market is identifying and understanding the regulatory authorities that oversee your product. This is not...more
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a public inventory on July 12, 2023, of certain food ingredients that the agency has determined are unsafe because they are unapproved food additives that are not Generally...more
A salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds brought the largest criminal penalty ever imposed following a criminal conviction in a food safety case. Our Food & Beverage and White Collar, Government & Internal Investigations...more
In recent years, class action litigation concerning the labeling of food and beverage products has become increasingly prevalent around the country. According to one report, as of November 2021, class-action lawsuits against...more
We invite you to enjoy a review of the food and beverage industry with bite size articles ranging from regulatory and real estate trends to litigation and M&A happenings. The past two years have seen significant changes...more
In this episode, host Jonathan Havens, co-chair of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s Food, Beverage and Agribusiness (FBA) Practice, speaks with colleague Justin Danilewitz, a litigator in the Firm’s White Collar and Government...more
As part of the general move to better-for-you beverages, non-alcoholic (NA) options have been and will likely continue to be on the rise. However, how NA is treated, or not treated, as “beer” has significant impact on its...more
A federal judge in the Southern District of Florida recently dismissed an action alleging that Bacardi’s use of a botanical called “grains of paradise” in its gin was “harmful and illegal,” holding that the statute on which...more
As many readers probably know, when a food or beverage manufacturer gets a consumer class action alleging that its labeling violated state law, one of the first things it should do is consider whether the disputed aspect of...more
California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) approved a new regulation exempting coffee from Proposition 65 warnings earlier this month. The rule states that: “[e]xposures to chemicals in coffee,...more
The cannabidiol ("CBD") industry is exploding today. Hemp and hemp-derived CBD were classified as Schedule I controlled substances under the Controlled Substances Act of 1972 ("CSA") until the passage of the Agriculture...more
Many food and beverage companies are assessing the use of hemp-derived ingredients in their products in light of the 2018 Farm Bill provisions excluding “hemp” from the definition of marijuana under the federal Controlled...more
On April 25, 2019, TTB published Industry Circular 2019-1. It addresses the hot topic of alcohol beverages (especially beer) infused with hemp-derived ingredients–with cannabidiol (CBD) as the clear focus of industry...more
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, commonly referred to as the Farm Bill, dramatically changed and improved the landscape for companies seeking to grow, market, distribute and sell products containing hemp and its...more
On December 20, 2018, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal without leave to amend of a putative class action complaint against Blue Diamond Growers, which alleged that the term “almond milk” on Blue Diamond’s beverages...more
On December 4, 2018, the Eleventh Circuit partially reversed the dismissal of Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals’ suit against HBS International Corp. for alleged violations of the Lanham Act and Georgia’s Uniform Deceptive Trade...more
Earlier this year, we covered a decision from the District of Connecticut finding state law false advertising claims against the bottled water company Poland Spring preempted by the FDCA. Flowing from that decision is the...more