Hialeah Woman Sues Kraft, Calling Mac and Cheese Prep Time ‘False and Misleading’ – NBC 6 South Florida
A South Florida woman is suing over the time it takes to make Velveeta microwavable mac and cheese, saying 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 class action complaint was filed earlier this month against Kraft Heinz Foods Company in the Southern District of Florida Miami Division on behalf of Amanda Ramirez, of Hialeah.
The suit, which claims damages of over $5 million, claims Ramirez bought the Velveeta microwavable single serve cups of mac and cheese at a “premium” $10.99 price at Publix but “would not have purchased it or paid less had she known the truth.”
Ramirez found the statement on the box that it would be ready in 3-and-a-half minutes “false and misleading” because in the directions, only one of several steps takes that amount of time, the suit claims.
“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 reads. “However, the directions outlined above show that 3-and-a-half minutes is just the length of time to complete one of several steps.”
In a statement, Ramirez’s attorney, Will Wright, who filed the lawsuit, 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.”
NBC 6 has reached out to Kraft for a statement but…
..