EAST ST. LOUIS - Accuracy of information on a box of Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuit mix doesn’t excuse baker Continental Mills from liability for inaccurate information on the box, Chief U.S. Judge Nancy Rostengel ruled on March 20.
Rosenstengel denied a motion to dismiss a complaint that the front of the box stated it would make ten biscuits when according to the household serving size chart it would make less than seven.
She found regulations require producers to represent a single serving in a common household measurement to make labels easier for average consumers to decipher.
“Thus, when the household measure is inaccurate or overstated it could plausibly mislead reasonable consumers," she wrote.
She found district judges in California, Florida and New York allowed consumer deception claims to proceed in similar cases.
Cassandra Neubauer of Madison County sued Continental Mills at St. Clair County circuit court last March, seeking to represent a national or state consumer class.
Her counsel David Nelson of Belleville claimed the front of the box listed the aggregate weight of the mix as 322 grams.
He claimed the nutrition panel described each serving size as a third of a cup.
He claimed a third of a cup weighed 46.9 grams, equal to 6.9 servings.
He claimed Neubauer paid $2.89 for the mix and sought to recover 92 cents per box.
Continental Mills counsel Emily Craven of Chicago removed the complaint to district court under national law limiting state court jurisdiction over class actions.
She claimed the number of class members would exceed the state court limit of 100 and the amount in controversy would exceed the state court limit of $5 million.
She moved to dismiss the complaint in June but withdrew from the case in September.
Marisa Ball of Chicago and Jasmine Wetherell of Los Angeles replaced her.
Nelson represents Neubauer in association with Robert King of St. Louis, Matthew Armstrong of Florida and Stuart Cochran of Texas.
On the date Rosenstengel issued the order she set bench trial in November 2026.
She set a scheduling conference on April 30.