Jackson Free Press

Attorney Don Barrett is no stranger to taking on big-name, big-budget opponents in the courtroom. His next target: some of the biggest players in the food industry.

Barrett took on big tobacco on behalf of the state more than a decade ago, which led to the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement that awarded more than $200 billion to 46 states from the tobacco companies over a 25-year period.

Now, more than a dozen lawyers who took on the tobacco companies, including Barrett, have filed 25 cases since April against food-industry giants like ConAgra Foods, PepsiCo, Heinz, General Mills and Chobani. The lawyers are claiming the companies are violating federal law by using misleading terminology on product and ingredient labels.

The New York Times reported Aug. 18 that the former anti-tobacco lawyers are acting particularly aggressively in the suits against the food industry, which has faced numerous lawsuits in recent years. In one case, they are asking a federal court in California to stop ConAgra's sales of Pam cooking spray, Swiss Miss cocoa products and some Hunt's canned tomatoes.

ConAgra lists "propellant" in the ingredients of Pam cooking spray. Unless a consumer looks up ConAgra's materials data safety sheet, they likely wouldn't know that the "propellant" includes petroleum gas, propane and butane. Or take Chobani's use of the term "evaporated cane juice" on labels of its yogurt instead of the much clearer term: "sugar."

It's cases of misleading, uninformative terminology like this that has Barrett suing the food companies.

"It's a crime--and that makes it a crime to sell it," Barrett told The New York Times. "That means these products should be off the shelves."

Barrett was not immediately available when the JFP attempted to contact him at his Lexington office for this story.

A former member of the U.S. Air Force, Barrett graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1967. He graduated from Ole Miss Law School in 1969.

The same year he graduated, Barrett joined his father, Pat Barrett Sr., at his firm, Barrett Law Group, P.A. In 2007, Barrett started Don Barrett, P.A., which serves as the cornerstone of the Barrett Law Group. The group has offices in Lexington, Oxford, and Nashville.

In his biography on the Barrett Law Group's website, Barrett wrote: "Basically, I make my living preparing and trying lawsuits for injured plaintiffs and cheated consumers. I have not kept count of the cases I have tried, but there have been many. I have won a substantial majority of the cases that I have tried I have lost some cases, too."

Taking on some of the biggest players in the national food industry, which bring in billions in revenue every year, will certainly be one of the biggest opponents of Barrett's career. If he can add some of these cases to his list of wins, Don Barrett may become one of the most recognized names in state law history.