A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a South Florida woman against the Kraft Heinz Food Company over the time it takes to make its Velveeta microwavable mac and cheese.
The class-action complaint was filed in November in the Southern District of Florida Miami Division on behalf of Amanda Ramirez, of Hialeah, and said the box's claims of "ready in 3-and-a-half minutes" doesn't accurately portray how long it takes to prepare the meal.
The suit alleged that the Pittsburgh-based company sells more of the product, and at a higher price, by misleading consumer's about the Velveeta Shells & Cheese prep time.
In a July 27 ruling, U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom granted Kraft's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying Ramirez didn't suffer an injury and continued to purchase the product after learning the label was allegedly "deceptive."
"She does not allege that she was unable to consume the product or that it was otherwise so flawed as to be rendered useless," Bloom wrote in the 13-page ruling. "In fact, the Complaint does not even include an allegation that Plaintiff ever attempted to cook the product."
The lawsuit had been seeking more than $5 million in damages and class-action status covering consumers in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, New Mexico, Alaska, Iowa, Tennessee and Virginia.
"There is no real and immediate threat of future injury. Plaintiff’s counsel conceded that point during oral argument and acknowledged that Plaintiff lacks standing to seek injunctive relief," Bloom wrote. "The Court agrees that Plaintiff lacks standing to pursue a claim for injunctive relief."
U.S. & World
Ramirez found the statement on the box that it would be ready in 3½ minutes "false and misleading" because in the directions, only one of several steps takes that amount of time, according to the suit.
"Consumers seeing 'ready in 3½ minutes' will believe it represents the total amount of time it takes to prepare the Product, meaning from the moment it is unopened to the moment it is ready for consumption," the suit said. "However, the directions outlined above show that 3-and-a-half minutes is just the length of time to complete one of several steps."
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In a statement after the suit was filed, Ramirez's attorney, Will Wright, said corporations shouldn't get a pass for "deceptive advertising."
"I’ve gotten a lot of flak about this case, but deceptive advertising is deceptive advertising. Here, Kraft charges extra for a desirable feature (saving time) but the marketing is false, it takes far longer for the product to be ready than as advertised. Deceptive adverting plain and simple," his statement read. "There are a lot of people that may feel this is just a little fibbing and not really a case and I get that. But we are striving for something better. We want corporate America to be straightforward and truthful in advertising their products."
Kraft had previously called the lawsuit "frivolous."
