ConAgra Lawsuit: Woman Sues Over ‘Calorie Free Butter’

A woman in Nebraska is filing a lawsuit against ConAgra, claiming that the company falsely advertised its Parkay Spray butter as “calorie free.”

The Associated Press reports that Pamela Trewhitt filed her lawsuit on Monday in Omaha’s federal court. Trewhitt is seeking class-action status, saying that ConAgra lied to thousands of its costumers by advertising the product as calorie free.

The lawsuit reads:

“Defendant knew or should have known that its product was mislabeled and engendered confusion among consumers.”

According to Trewhitt, the spray is marketed as fat-free and calorie-free but actually contains 832 calories and 93 grams of fat per bottle. Trewhitt uses internet comments in her lawsuit saying that several people used the spray as a substitute for butter in order to lose weight, but ended up putting on pounds instead.

The lawsuit reads:

“For example, a contributor to (a) website … writes, ‘I could not figure out why I simply could not lose hardly even a pound, even though I was working out hard … and monitoring calories … for a couple of years…. I was also literally taking the top of the ‘fat and calorie free butter’ spray and pouring it on all my carefully steamed veggies when I found out that a bottle of that stuff is 90 fat grams. I was going through two bottles a week, and working out and getting fat and unhealthy.”

The ConAgra Lawsuit accuses the company of using small serving sizes in order to deceive its customers.

The company told Manufacturing.Net that it plans to fight the lawsuit.

ConAgra spokeswoman Becky Niiya, said:

“The company stands behind the accuracy of its labeling and has a long-established commitment to marketing our food responsibly… We intend to vigorously defend this litigation.”