A Florida woman is seeking over $5 million from the parent company of Velveeta Shells & Cheese over their misleading “ready time.”
Amanda Ramirez, of Hialeah, filed the class-action lawsuit against Kraft on November 18.
The lawsuit accuses the company of misleading labeling and falsely marketing their microwavable single-serve cups of mac and cheese.
The filing additionally claims that Kraft violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act “by engaging in unfair methods of competition, unconscionable acts and practices, and unfair and deceptive acts and practices in the conduct of its business.”
“The statement of ‘ready in 3½ minutes’ is false and misleading because the Product takes longer than 3-and-a-half minutes to prepare for consumption,” the lawsuit states.
Ramirez’ filing continues, “according to the directions on the back of the packaging, there are four steps in preparing the Product.” It then shows a picture of the directions on the back of the box.
“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 lawsuit continues. “However, the directions outlined above show that 3-and-a-half minutes is just the length of time to complete one of several steps.”
“The label does not state the Product takes ‘3½ minutes to cook in the microwave,’ which would have been true,” the suit continues. “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.”
Due to the alleged false “ready time” claim, according to Ramirez, Kraft “sold more of the Product and at higher prices than it would have in the absence of this misconduct, resulting in additional profits at the expense of consumers.”
Ramirez is seeking over $5 million, including statutory and punitive damages.
Kraft has not publicly responded to the lawsuit.