Woman sues Kraft Heinz for $5M over misleading mac and cheese preparation time

(Gray News) – A woman in Florida has filed a class-action complaint against Kraft Heinz Foods Company for $5 million for advertising its Velveeta mac and cheese can be ready in 3 1/2 minutes.

According to the 15-page complaint, Amanda Ramirez claims the statement is false and misleading because it takes longer than that time to prepare the food to eat.

Ramirez believes the label should say the product takes “3 1/2 minutes to cook in the microwave,” which would have been true, the suit states.

The complaint claims Ramirez would not have purchased the Velveeta mac and cheese if she had known it would take longer to prepare, microwave and allow time for the cheese sauce to thicken.

The complaint states Ramirez, like many other consumers, looks to stretch their money as far as possible when buying groceries and makes many decisions based on packaging.

“Plaintiff relied on the words, terms coloring, descriptions, layout, placement, packaging, and/or images on the product, on the labeling, statements, omissions, claims, statements, and instructions, made by defendant or at its directions, in digital, print and/or social media, which accompanied the product and separately, through in-store, digital, audio, and print marketing,” the suit reads.

The lawsuit looks to cover consumers in several states including, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, New Mexico, Alaska, Iowa, Tennessee and Virginia who bought the mac and cheese cups during the applicable statute of limitations.

Gray News reached out to Kraft Heinz Foods for a statement but has not yet gotten a response.