36.  Plaintiff brings this action as a class action pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil  Procedure 23(a) and (b)(3) on behalf of a class, consisting of all persons and entities that  acquired Flower Foods securities between February 7, 2013, and August 10, 2016, inclusive, and  who were damaged thereby (the “Class”).  Excluded from the Class are Defendants, the officers  and directors of the Company, at all relevant times, members of their immediate families and  their legal representatives, heirs, successors, or assigns, and any entity in which Defendants have  or had a controlling interest.   42.  The market for Flower Foods’ securities was open, well-developed and efficient  at all relevant times.  As a result of these materially false and/or misleading statements, and/or  failures to disclose, Flower Foods’ securities traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class  Period.  Plaintiff and other members of the Class purchased or otherwise acquired Flower Foods’  securities relying upon the integrity of the market price of the Company’s securities and market  information relating to Flower Foods, and have been damaged thereby.   43.  During the Class Period, Defendants materially misled the investing public,  thereby inflating the price of Flower Foods’ securities, by publicly issuing false and/or  misleading statements and/or omitting to disclose material facts necessary to make Defendants’  statements, as set forth herein, not false and/or misleading.  The statements and omissions were  materially false and/or misleading because they failed to disclose material adverse information  and/or misrepresented the truth about Flower Foods’ business, operations, and prospects as  alleged herein.   65.  Plaintiff repeats and realleges each and every allegation contained above as if  fully set forth herein.    66.  The Individual Defendants acted as controlling persons of Flower Foods within  the meaning of Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act as alleged herein.  By virtue of their high-level  positions, and their ownership and contractual rights, participation in and/or awareness of the  Company’s operations and/or intimate knowledge of the false financial statements filed by the  Company with the SEC and disseminated to the investing public, the Individual Defendants had  the power to influence and control and did influence and control, directly or indirectly, the  decision-making of the Company, including the content and dissemination of the various  statements which Plaintiff contends are false and misleading.  The Individual Defendants were  provided with or had unlimited access to copies of the Company’s reports, press releases, public  filings and other statements alleged by Plaintiff to be misleading prior to and/or shortly after  these statements were issued and had the ability to prevent the issuance of the statements or  cause the statements to be corrected.    Background   Violation of Section 10(b) of The Exchange Act and   Rule 10b-5 Promulgated Thereunder   Against All Defendants   Violation of Section 20(a) of The Exchange Act  Against the Individual Defendants  