Legal News

Class Action? Perdue Accused of Secreting Giblets in Chickens

By Dan Slater

One of this Law Blogger’s first summer jobs entailed operating an aluminum crusher at a can recycling center. Customers were paid by the pound — at the time, circa 1994, prices ranged from 31 to 34 cents. On occasion, you’d find that customers bulked up their bags with non-aluminum items, such as lawnmower engines and old clothes.

We were reminded of that scheming today when we read about what Courthouse News Service reports may be the first federal class action based on concealment of chicken giblets. In the complaint, Perdue Farms is accused of disposing of “an enormous quantity of extra giblet parts” by a “secret practice” of stuffing extra hearts, gizzards and necks into its whole chickens, thereby “dispos(ing) of its extra giblets” and tricking customers into paying the regular per-pound price for them.

The complaint alleges:

. . . by this improper method, Perdue incorporates the additional giblet parts in the price per-pound of Perdue whole chickens sold to retail customers. Thus, while Plaintiff was charged $1.29 per pound for whole chicken, the weight of the chicken - and thus total price charged - included the extra giblet parts. This practice allows Perdue to essentially charge Plaintiff and Class for its costs to dispose of extra giblet parts, totaling millions of dollars in improper charges assessed to consumers. Consequently, Perdue makes retail consumers of its whole chickens pay for the privilege of disposing of Perdue’s processing waste. . . .

But aren’t gizzards the best part? Clearly these people have never tasted a good chicken giblet gravy. Indeed, when reached for comment, Julie DeYoung, a Perdue spokeswoman, told the Law Blog: “While it is company practice not to comment on pending litigation, I can tell you the majority of our giblets complaints are about MISSING giblets. We just received the lawsuit and will review it in more detail, but we anticipate a vigorous defense.”

Repping the class is New Jersey lawyer Peter Masnik of Kalikman and Masnik.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 18, 2008 (boomark / email).