Overview
- Jurors found Conagra negligent and liable for failing to warn consumers about inhalation risks tied to Pam butter flavor, according to the Feb. 4 verdict.
- Plaintiff Roland Esparza, 58, said he used the spray multiple times daily since the 1990s and was later diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans.
- Esparza is on continuous oxygen and is awaiting a double‑lung transplant, his attorneys said.
- Conagra said it will pursue all available legal avenues to contest the decision and argued during trial that diacetyl was removed from Pam in 2009.
- Esparza’s lawyers called the outcome a first jury finding linking a consumer cooking spray’s formulation to ‘popcorn lung,’ a condition previously tied to workplace exposures.