The federal food labeling statute reserves enforcement to the United States and gives private parties no right to sue under it. Yet nearly every food labeling dispute a consumer hears about is a private class action. This article explains that apparent contradiction — the federal agency writes the rules, private plaintiffs enforce equivalent state-law duties, and the same statute's preemption provision then blocks part of what they can claim. It covers what misbranding actually means, why "natural" has no legal definition while "organic" has an entire certification apparatus behind it, the preemption analysis that determines which claims survive, the parallel meat and poultry regime with its stricter preemption, competitor suits under the false advertising statute, the compelled disclosure doctrine that constrains what governments may require, and how a label is actually cleared before it reaches a shelf.