Shook Partner Cary Silverman joined the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform’s (ILR’s) Oriana Senatore for an episode of the organization’s podcast Cause for Action to discuss his work preparing “The Food Court: Developments in Litigation Targeting Food and Beverage Marketing.” Senatore asks Silverman, “Can you give us a flavor for this litigation? What types of food lawsuits are courts seeing and what is driving this increase?”

“Flavor is exactly the right word, because that’s the type of lawsuits that we’re seeing most recently,” Silverman explains. “Lawsuits that are concentrating on the flavoring or the ingredients of products seem to be, as one might say, the ‘flavor of the month’ of this type of litigation. We’ve seen, in our 2017 paper, there were certain types of lawsuits, like slack fill, that were sort of the rage a couple of years ago. While those have fallen to the wayside for various reasons, the new ‘flavor of the month’ are the flavor lawsuits. We’re seeing any product that has flavoring—or that is advertised as having a food picture or is vanilla—is subject to a lawsuit.”

Listen to the full podcast on Soundcloud or watch the video on ILR’s website.

Read more food, beverage and agribusiness industry news in the Food & Beverage Litigation Update.