A new lawsuit claims there’s something’s fishy about Subway’s tuna sandwiches.
The Subway fast-food chain describes its tuna sandwiches as made with “flaked tuna blended with creamy mayo.” But two Alameda County residents have sued the Connecticut-based company, claiming the filling is “anything but tuna.”
Subway officials issued an immediate response Thursday, blasting the accusations as “reckless and improper.”
Plaintiffs Karen Dhanowa and Nilima Amin, whose complaint was filed Jan. 21 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, are claiming fraud and false advertising. By selling sandwiches that are “bereft of tuna,” Subway has been trying to “capitalize on the premium price consumers are willing to pay for tuna,” the lawsuit says.
Further, the plaintiffs are claiming “emotional distress (of the type that would naturally result from being led to believe that the food product you are purchasing and consuming contains ‘tuna’ when in fact it does not).”
The case was filed by the Lanier Law Firm of Houston and Shalini Dogra of the Dogra Law Group of Santa Monica. The attorneys did not make their clients available for comment.
After having samples from several California restaurants analyzed, the complainants said the filling was determined to be “a mixture of various concoctions that do not constitute tuna, yet have been blended together by defendants to imitate the appearance of tuna.” However, the complaint declined to say precisely what their lab tests discovered in lieu of tuna.
According to Subway representatives, “Subway delivers 100% cooked tuna to its restaurants, which is mixed with mayonnaise and used in freshly made sandwiches, wraps and salads that are served to and enjoyed by our guests. The taste and quality of our tuna make it one of Subway’s most popular products and these baseless accusations threaten to damage our franchisees, small business owners who work tirelessly to uphold the high standards that Subway sets for all of its products, including its tuna.”
The company went on to say: “Unfortunately, this lawsuit is part of a trend in which the named plaintiffs’ attorneys have been targeting the food industry in an effort to make a name for themselves in that space. Subway will vigorously defend itself against these and any other baseless efforts to mischaracterize and tarnish the high-quality products that Subway and its franchisees provide to their customers, in California and around the world, and intends to fight these claims through all available avenues if they are not immediately dismissed.”
According to the suit, the attorneys for Dhanowa and Amin are hoping to get the claim certified as a class action, which would allow other customers who purchased Subway’s tuna sandwiches and wraps after Jan. 21, 2017, in California to join the case.
