Kroger can label eggs ‘farm fresh’ even if they weren’t produced by ‘hens frolicking in elysian green pastures,’ federal judge rules

CHICAGO – Kroger can label eggs “farm fresh” even if they are produced by hens living in industrial confinement, a federal judge ruled in a decision dismissing a prospective class-action lawsuit against the grocery giant Tuesday.

Plaintiff and Mariano’s shopper Adam Sorkin filed a lawsuit against Kroger in federal court in Chicago last fall. Sorkin argued that when he bought premium-priced eggs labeled “farm fresh” from Kroger-owned Mariano’s, he believed the label meant the eggs were produced by hens who lived “on farms, with open green space, grass, hay and straw.”

The farm fresh label “evokes favorable impressions in consumers” such as “a farmer getting up with roosters to gather warm eggs from straw nests and rush them to the local general store,” Sorkin argued, alleging the product label violated the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

But Sorkin’s complaint failed to substantiate that most shoppers understand the “farm fresh” label to guarantee that they were produced “on some sort of idyllic farm with a red barn, an abundance of hay, and hens frolicking in elysian green pastures,” U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras wrote in a decision dismissing the case Tuesday, as first reported by the Sun-Times.

“The term ‘farm fresh’ does not say or suggest anything about whether the eggs came from a hen that was caged or not,” as opposed to more specific terms such as “cage free” or “free-range,” Kocoras wrote.

Sorkin, who argued in court documents that the “farm fresh” label misleadingly implied that the hens who produced the eggs were “enjoying time playing in the grass and dirt, spreading their wings, etc.,” based his claim on a “legally unreasonable interpretation of the product label,” Kocoras ruled.

Representatives for Kroger and Mariano’s did not immediately return a request for comment Friday, nor did attorneys for Sorkin.