U.S. food supplier Conagra has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit which alleged the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification label on its Mrs. Paul’s and Van de Kamp’s frozen seafood products is deceptive.
In a status hearing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on 5 November, the two parties – Conagra and plaintiffs John Bohen and Abdallah Nasser – “report they have settled but need more time to finalize settlement,” a court document said.
No additional details or timeline were provided, and attorneys for the plaintiffs did not respond to SeafoodSource’s request for comment.
Nasser and Bohen sued Conagra in March 2023, alleging MSC’s ecolabel and the phrases “Certified Sustainable Seafood MSC” and “Certified Sustainably Sourced” on its Mrs. Paul’s and Van de Kamp’s pollock products deceived consumers. The plaintiffs claimed the products were actually being sourced from Russian fisheries employing unsustainable practices and sought USD 5 million (EUR 4.6 million) in damages.
“Russian pollock fisheries do not have an effective measure in place to protect endangered species, such as Steller sea lions and albatross. Pollock trawl fisheries in the Bering Sea also frequently catch snow crab as bycatch, which they ultimately discard,” the lawsuit claims. “Due to the use of pelagic trawls, these discarded crabs are estimated to have an 80 percent mortality rate. No reasonable consumer would believe the products to be sustainable if they knew of these fishing practices utilized in sourcing the products.”
In March 2024, U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall ruled that the plaintiffs could continue to pursue claims against Conagra despite the company’s objections but could not be granted injunctive relief as they had requested. That would have required the company to take immediate action to change the labeling on its seafood packaging.
As it works to settle the lawsuit over labeling, Conagra is still ...
