TCG Client Leeman Settles 4-MEI Case With Farmer Bros. for up to $30K

Dr. Whitney Leeman, a client of The Chanler Group, and Farmer Bros., a food service company, reached a settlement yesterday resolving Leeman’s allegations that Farmer Bros. violated Proposition 65 by offering for sale food extracts, flavorings, and colorings containing the chemical 4-MEI in California without the required health hazard warning. California has designated 4-MEI a chemical known to cause cancer, and under Proposition 65, companies offering for sale products containing chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm must first provide consumers with a health hazard warning.

Farmer Bros. is a publically traded food service company with thousands of employees nationwide and a line of over 3,000 products. As part of the settlement, Farmer Bros. will pay an initial civil penalty of $5,000, 75% of which will be paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), the lead agency responsible for the implementation of Proposition 65, and 25% of which will be paid to Dr. Leeman. Farmer Bros. has also agreed to manufacture, sell, or distribute for sale in California a product that contains no more than 1 part per million of 4-MEI.

As an incentive for reformulation of the products covered by the consent judgment, should Farmer Bros. provide a written certification that the covered products offered for sale in California comply with the reformulation standard as set out above by December 15, 2013, then Dr. Leeman has agreed to waive the remaining $25,000 of the civil penalty. The penalty is otherwise due on December 31, 2013.

This is the first settlement The Chanler Group has reached for its clients in regards to 4-MEI.

The Chanler Group represents citizen enforcers who, acting in the public interest, commence actions against businesses offering products for sale in California that contain chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm without first providing the health hazard warning required by Proposition 65. Citizen enforcers bringing Proposition 65 actions in the public interest may obtain a Court Judgment imposing civil penalties, an injunction requiring reformulation of products, and/or provision of health hazard warnins. The Chanler Group has represented citizen enforcers of Proposition 65 for more than twenty years.