Webb v. Trader Joe's Co., No. 19-56389 (9th Cir. 2021)
Annotate this Case
The Ninth Circuit affirmed, based on federal preemption, the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's state law claims alleging that Trader Joe's federally regulated retained water labels on poultry products were misleading. The panel explained that the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act regulates the retained water data collection process and label production for covered poultry products.
In this case, plaintiff argued that she used a data collection protocol that produced different percentages of retained water than those displayed on Trader Joe's poultry labels, and thus Trader Joe's labels are misleading in violation of state law. The panel concluded that plaintiff's claims are preempted by federal law regulating poultry labeling and retained water measurement protocols under 21 U.S.C. 467e. The panel explained that state law claims seek to impose the requirements of plaintiff's retained water protocol in addition to Trader Joe's required Food Safety and Inspection Service protocol, and plaintiff's counsel confirmed at oral argument that she cannot assert that her data collection protocol is the same as that used by Trader Joe's. Accordingly, the district court did not err in dismissing plaintiff's claims with prejudice.
Court Description: Federal Preemption. The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal, as federally preempted, of plaintiff’s state-law based claims arguing that Trader Joe’s Company’s federally regulated retained water labels on poultry products were misleading. The federal Poultry Products Inspection Act (“PPIA”) regulates the retained water data collection process and label production for covered poultry products. Under the PPIA, Trader Joe’s was required to maintain its retained water data collection protocol on file and make it available to the Food Safety and Inspection Service (“FSIS”) for review. The plaintiff argued that she used a data collection protocol that produced different percentages of retained water than those displayed on Trader Joe’s poultry labels, and thus Trader Joe’s labels were misleading in violation of state law. Federal law expressly preempts claims relating to regulated labels that would impose requirements “in addition to, or different than those” already required by federal law. 21 U.S.C. § 467e. The panel held that plaintiff’s state law claims were preempted because they sought to impose the requirements of plaintiff’s retained water protocol in addition to Trader Joe’s FSIS-required protocol. Further, the panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal with prejudice because plaintiff’s counsel confirmed that plaintiff could not WEBB V. TRADER JOE’S 3 assert that her data collection protocol was the same as that used by Trader Joe’s.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.