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The cheese topping Kraft’s Bagel Bites pizza snacks isn’t real, a class action lawsuit claims.
Lead plaintiff Erin Marcinelli says Kraft makes its Bagel Bites with a cheese blend, violating the law by misleading customers in thinking it’s 100 percent mozzarella.
Bagel Bites is advertised as being mini bagels with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce that are “made with real cheese,” the lawsuit contends. This kind of messaging implies a level of quality to the product that’s just not there, Marcinelli argues. When customers see the words mozzarella, they expect a “sliceable curd cheese made of cow’s milk,” the lawsuit claims.
Instead, shoppers who buy these Bagel Bites will find the cheese topping is a cheese blend that includes modified food starch. By using these fillers Bagel Bites are left tasting like cardboard with a “rubbery mouthfeel,” the class action lawsuit alleges.
Even more, the packaging features the “real” dairy seal next to the cheese claims, which comes with U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements because consumers are often misled by the use of these cheese blends. Products using the “Real Dairy” seal have to meet Federal Standards of Identity, meaning that the use of the logo is not allowed when the fillers are added to cheese ingredients, the lawsuit argues.
There are exceptions to this rule, according to the lawsuit, but they don’t apply to Kraft’s Bagel Bites. Allowable ingredients for a product using the “Real Dairy” logo include milk, cream, clotting enzymes, vinegar, coloring or antimycotics.
“When you see the REAL® logo on a product in a store or on a menu in a restaurant, you can trust it’s the real thing, and not a pale imitation,” the lawsuit claims.
“Imitation mozzarella cheese” would be the more accurate way to describe the cheese in Kraft’s Bagel Bites, the lawsuit states, because the fillers dilute the nutritional value. By adding food starches to the cheese blend, the Bagel Bites don’t have as much protein.
Marcinelli is seeking to form a class of Bagel Bites buyers who live in New York under the class action lawsuit’s statute of limitations.
Formally, Marcinelli is accusing Kraft of violating New York’s General Business Law, in addition to breaching warranties, negligent misrepresentation, fraud and unjust enrichment. She is asking the court to provide injunctive relief along with monetary and statutory damages.
Do you eat Bagel Bites? What do you think of this class action lawsuit over the cheese it’s made of? Let us know in the comments below.
Counsel representing the plaintiffs in the Bagel Bites cheese class action lawsuit is Spencer Sheehan of Sheehan & Associates, P.C.
The Bagel Bites Cheese Class Action Lawsuit is Marcinelli, et al. v. Kraft Heinz Foods Company, Case No. 7:21-cv-01075 in the United States District Court Southern District of New York.
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1,353 thoughts onKraft Bagel Bites Made With Fake Cheese, Consumers Claim
Please add me to the list. So unfortunate to be mislead.
Please add me to the list, being misled is unfortunate
I feel I’m a broken record with Kraft on this additional class action. In addition to their macaroni products, my wife (vegetarian) has enjoyed Bagel Bites before she started eating more healthy. At one point this item was a weekly purchase for several years. Please contact me about this class action. Thank you.