One year after a food poisoning outbreak caused by salmonella-tainted peanut butter, consumers have filed a class-action lawsuit against food giant Kellogg. According to a news report in Consumeraffairs.com, the lawsuit alleges that Kellogg failed to warn consumers that its snack foods were possibly contaminated with the deadly bacteria, putting them at risk of serious illness. Kellogg continued to claim that its products were healthy, nutritious and safe.

Deceptive Marketing?

The lawsuit states that the now-defunct Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) provided Kellogg with the peanut paste for a number of its products such as cookies and cracker sandwiches. Kellogg recalled some of its snacks in January 2009 and then expanded the defective product recall twice to include a larger variety of products. Federal investigators determined that PCA shipped peanut products that tested positive for salmonella. Subsequent inspections at PCA plants in Georgia and Texas also uncovered a number of health code violations including leaky roofs, rodent droppings, live cockroaches and mold.

Fight for Justice

Consumers who joined the class action, state that they were misled into buying and spending money on the products, but not getting the safe nutritious product being marketed as such by Kellogg. There have been class actions lawsuits in the past where consumers claimed economic injury suffered as the result of a corporation’s negligence. For example, owners of recalled Toyotas can claim damages seeking compensation for loss of resale value although they may not own a defective vehicle or have been physically injured due to an auto product defect. However, it remains to be seen if the same logic can be applied to these Kellogg products.

Class action lawsuits are the only recourse for consumers to hold corporations such as Kellogg or Toyota accountable, especially when they rip off thousands or millions of people for a small amount each. Without class action lawsuits, consumers have no realistic means to fight back against any injustice committed by these corporations. One individual consumer does not have the resources to fight against a large corporation. So it makes sense that a large group of people joined hands to bring this class-action lawsuit.