A Long Island olive importer is asking a bankruptcy judge to decide how much it owes customers for allegedly selling processed olive oil as pure, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Kangadis Food Inc., which is fighting claims that it improperly marketed a chemically treated olive byproduct as “100 percent pure olive oil,” recently sought bankruptcy protection in an attempt to put the brakes on a class-action suit over the alleged mislabeling. The family-owned company filed for chapter 11 Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip, New York, saying that the approximately $1.4 million in legal fees it has racked up over the past year and a half have hurt what is otherwise a profitable business. The goal of the filing, according to Kangadis Food’s bankruptcy lawyer, is to avoid paying an estimated $750,000 to $1 million more to defend itself in a class-action suit scheduled to go to trial in September.
