TGI Fridays ‘Mozzarella Sticks’ maker sued for containing no mozzarella cheese at all
Yet another supermarket snack food is finding itself facing the gavel over what a plaintiff says is misleading packaging.
Amy Joseph filed suit on Feb. 5, 2021 as the first plaintiff in a potential nationwide class-action lawsuit claiming that “TGI Fridays Mozzarella Snack Sticks,” a grocery store snack food item made by defendants Inventure Foods Inc. and TGI Fridays Inc. is “misbranded.” Joseph said, since the item’s packaging prominently states, “Mozzarella Stick Snacks,” and includes an image of deep-fried mozzarella sticks, that the product is misleading because it doesn’t actually contain mozzarella cheese.
“Despite its label, the Product does not contain mozzarella cheese; rather, it contains cheddar cheese,” reads the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District Of Illinois. Joseph claims that this puts the defendants in violation of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Trade Practices Act and “the respective state-law claims for consumer fraud and deceptive trade practices in all fifty states and the District of Columbia on behalf of herself and the nationwide class.”
In the suit, Joseph said in January 2021, she purchased a six-pack of the sticks on Amazon for $22.95 and is arguing that, because she only saw the front label without being provided a product description detailing its ingredients, she mistakenly believed that she was buying a snack that actually contained mozzarella cheese, not cheddar.
She further claimed that even if she did see the back label, which states that the “Mozzarella Snack Sticks” in fact did not contain mozzarella cheese, “given the prominence of the words ‘MOZZARELLA STICKS’ on the Product’s front label, and her reasonable understanding that mozzarella sticks, by definition, contain mozzarella cheese,” she believed that the product contained mozzarella cheese.
Joseph said she is entitled to relief because she alleges the defendants, “‘individually and acting jointly, collectively, and in concert together, created, developed, reviewed, authorized, and are responsible for the textual and graphic content on the packaging of the Products,’ including the misrepresentation that the Product contained mozzarella cheese,” the suit reads.
On Nov. 28, a Chicago federal judge ruled that the lawsuit could in fact move forward against Inventure Foods, but not TGI Fridays. The court granted TGIF’s motion to be dismissed from the suit, ruling that the restaurant as a franchisor could not be responsible for any misbranding since all it did was license its trademarked logo to Inventure Foods who then made the snack in question.
“We are pleased with the judge’s ruling,” Thomas A. Zimmerman, Jr., Joseph’s lead lawyer, tells TODAY.com. “The judge agreed with us that the claims in the lawsuit have merit, the case should not be dismissed, and the case may proceed against Inventure Foods as a nationwide class action lawsuit. We intend to proceed against Inventure Foods on behalf of the nationwide class of purchasers of TGI Fridays mozzarella sticks.”
Inventure Foods and its parent company Utz both declined to comment to TODAY.com, and TGI Fridays did not respond to a request for comment.
News of this lawsuit comes after several other high-profile lawsuits have been filed over the language on food packaging in recent years. In October 2021, Kelloggs faced a class-action lawsuit over the alleged false advertising of the true strawberry content in its Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts.
Just last month, a Florida resident sued the Kraft Heinz Company for at least $5 million over what the plaintiff claimed is deceptive and fraudulent packaging regarding the cooking time on Kraft’s Velveeta Shells & Cheese Microwavable Shell Pasta.
And in August 2022, federal judge in Missouri approved a settlement to proceed involving “Ritas” products distributed by Anheuser-Busch which were sued over the impression that they contain tequila or another spirit when they actually do not. According to court filings, Anheuser-Busch denied all allegations, though it settled the suit in May 2021.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
