‘100%’ Parmesan Cheese Falsely Advertised, Class Action Says

Kraft Heinz, Target, and SuperValu have been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit, alleging the defendants falsely advertised that their grated Parmesan cheese products are 100% cheese, when in fact they contain cellulose, a filler made from wood chips.

Plaintiff Ann Yankee of Illinois filed the class action lawsuit against Kraft Heinz, Target and SuperValu in the federal Northern District court claiming violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

Yankee claims she frequently purchased Kraft, Target, and SuperValu products from retail stores in Illinois, specifically the Kraft product “100% Grated Parmesan Cheese,” paying approximately $3-4 dollars for the item. In purchasing the product, Yankee claims she relied on the prominent representations on the front of the Parmesan cheese label – that the product is “100% grated Parmesan cheese” or “100% grated Parmesan and Romano cheese.”

According to the class action lawsuit, the cheese products actually contain other additives and fillers. In fact, independent laboratory testing reveals that the SuperValu Parmesan cheese contains a substantial amount (at least 8.8%) of cellulose, a filler and additive derived from wood chips, and the Kraft product contains at least 3.8%. The testing also allegedly revealed that the Target cheese product contains not only cellulose but also corn starch.

The lawsuit claims that since the products are falsely advertised and the cellulose serves purely as a filler, it violates the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act as well as various other consumer protection laws.

Yankee states that had she known the Parmesan cheese products contained additives and fillers, she would not have purchased the items, or would not have paid as much for them.

She filed the complaint on behalf of herself and all others who purchased the Parmesan cheese products manufactured by Kraft Heinz, Target, and SuperValu and were deceived by the products promoted as “100% grated Parmesan cheese” or “100% grated Parmesan and Romano cheese.”

Similar lawsuits were filed last week against Kraft Heinz, Wal-Mart in federal courts across the country. According to one Kraft lawsuit, filed in California, “the food manufacturer has been deceiving customers for years with different advertisements regarding its “100% Grated Parmesan Cheese.”

Additionally, a class action lawsuit filed on Feb. 23 in New York accuses department and grocery store giant Wal-Mart of deceptively advertising its in-house “Great Value” brand of Parmesan cheese as being “100%.”

Yankee seeks compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive relief, restitution and disgorgement, attorney fees and other costs of the suit, plus a jury trial.

The potential Class is represented by attorneys Carol V. Gilden and Andrew N. Friedman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll; Lori G. Feldman, Courtney E. Maccarone, and Andrea Clisura of Levi & Korsinsky; and Janine L. Pollack of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz.

The Kraft, Target, SuperValu 100% Parmesan Cheese Class Action Lawsuit is Yankee v. Kraft Heinz et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-02873, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

UPDATE: On June 2, 2016, The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) has consolidated 16 class action lawsuits that allege the labeling and marketing of certain parmesan cheese products as “100% Grated Parmesan Cheese” is false and misleading because the products allegedly contain cellulose as a filler.
UPDATE 2: On Nov. 1, 2018, a federal judge determined that only some of the allegations in a Kraft, Walmart parmesan cheese multidistrict litigationwill move forward.