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Velveeta has met ready-to-eat needs for several years through its in-house mac and cheese cups called Shells and Cheese. However, on November 18, 2022, an unhappy customer filed a class action suit against its parent company for false advertising.
Kraft Heinz Company released Shells and Cheese as part of their Velveeta brand in 1984. It is a milk and pasta-based microwavable meal that comes in chipotle and jalapeno flavors.
Velveeta is being sued despite being in production for the past 38 years.
Florida native Amanda Ramirez of Hialeah has filed a proposed lawsuit of $5 million against Kraft Heinz Company, alleging that the food takes longer to prepare than what is advertised on the packaging. The lawsuit was filed by attorneys in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
The microwaveable single-serve cup of mac and cheese is advertised to "be ready in 3½ minutes" but the class action lawsuit claims that it takes longer and that the advertising is "false and misleading."
The pasta container instructs the consumer to microwave the product for 3½ minutes, but according to Ramirez's lawyers, it does not take into account the time taken for the steps required to prepare the pasta, which includes removing the lid and sauce packet, adding water, microwaving the product, and stirring the sauce in.
According to the complainant, all the additional steps make it impossible for the Velveeta mac-and-cheese to be ready within the instructed three and a half minutes. The lawsuit reads as:
"To provide consumers with a Product that is actually “ready in 3½ minutes" the Product would need to be cooked in the microwave for less than 3-and-a-half minutes so that all the preparation steps could be completed in the 3-and-a-half minutes' timeframe."
The claim is that the ready-in-a-short-time label has made it possible for the company to slap a premium price point on their product, which is higher than other similar products. The complainant has blamed the company for intentionally misleading the customers.
"As a result of the false and misleading representations, the Product is sold at a premium price, approximately no less than $10.99 for eight 2.39 oz cups, excluding tax and sales, higher than similar products, represented in a non-misleading way."
The legal team also states that Ramirez is like many other Americans who wish to "stretch their budget as much as they can while purchasing groceries" and chose Velveeta over other products because of what its label promised. Ramirez claims that she would not have made the purchase if she "had known the truth."
In addition to the $5 million in damages, the complainant also seeks punitive damages from Kraft Heinz Company, asking that the brand "be ordered to cease its deceptive advertising" and "be made to engage in a corrective advertising campaign."
Kraft Heinz Company responded to the lawsuit by calling it "frivolous" and claiming that they will strongly defend themselves against the allegations made by the complainant.
