By Joseph Lamour - TODAY via
NBC News
A Latina woman from Hialeah, in Miami (Florida), sued the Kraft Heinz company demanding five million dollars because she considers the instructions for use of her microwaveable Velveeta Shells & Cheese brand macaroni and cheese to be fraudulent.
“To offer consumers a product that is truly ready in three and a half minutes, it would need to be microwaved for less than three and a half minutes, so that all preparation steps could be completed within three and a half minutes.” , alleges the lawsuit filed on behalf of Amanda Ramirez on November 18 in the Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Kraft's mac and cheese. Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images
The lawsuit lists five steps in making macaroni and cheese: from removing the lid and adding water to microwaving and then mixing a powdered cheese sauce into the cooked pasta.
The plaintiff focuses on the fifth step, "the cheese sauce will thicken as it stands", which, according to her, requires more preparation time than it says on the packaging (three and a half minutes).
"Consumers who see 'ready three and a half minutes' will believe it represents the total amount of time it takes to prepare the product," the lawsuit stated.
“But the instructions outlined above show that three and a half minutes is only the time to complete one of several steps.
The label does not state that the product takes 'three and a half minutes to microwave,' which would have been true," she said.
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Kraft Heinz told NBC News in a statement: "We are aware of this frivolous lawsuit and will strongly defend ourselves against the allegations in it."
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Ramirez also claims that Velveeta macaroni and cheese is more expensive than other similar products that do not give allegedly misleading information on how to prepare it.
The woman sued "individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated," which means this could lead to a class action settlement, as happened in 2020 when the brewer Anheuser-Busch settled a class action lawsuit for false advertising for their Rita drink.
"The class members that the plaintiff seeks to represent number more than 100, because the product has been sold in thousands of stores in states," the lawsuit states, which seeks at least $5 million in damages, " including statutory and punitive, not including interest and costs.
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"Consumers are misled into believing that the product will be ready for consumption in a shorter time than it actually takes to prepare it," the lawsuit explains.
The court filing shows that a West Palm Beach-based law firm has filed the lawsuit along with Sheehan and Associates, a New York law firm led by Spencer Sheehan, with experience in these actions.