- A woman claimed in a suit that Velveeta is not the easy, cheesy macaroni it's made to seem.
- Florida's Amanda Ramirez claimed that Velveeta's advertised 3-and-a-half-minute prep time is a lie.
A Florida woman has filed a class action lawsuit against Kraft Heinz's cheesy instant macaroni product Velveeta, arguing that her macaroni and cheese took too much time and too many steps to prepare.
According to the court documents, Amanda Ramirez mounted a class action lawsuit against Velveeta's parent company Kraft Heinz Foods Company, asking for up to $5 million. Central to Ramirez's claims in the lawsuit is that Velveeta did not actually take 3-and-a-half minutes to prepare – and that only the microwaving step took that long.
"The statement of 'ready in 31⁄2 minutes' is false and misleading because the Product takes longer than 3-and-a-half minutes to prepare for consumption," Ramirez said in the suit. "To provide consumers with a Product that is actually 'ready in 3 1⁄2 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."
Ramirez wrote that she felt misled because microwaving was simply one of four steps to cooking the macaroni and processed cheese. She added that she filed the class action suit because others were "subjected to the same unfair, misleading, and deceptive representations, omissions, and actions."
"We are aware of this frivolous lawsuit and will strongly defend against the allegations in the complaint," a spokesperson for Kraft Heinz told Insider.
As part of the lawsuit, the plaintiff is also claiming that Velveeta reaped illegitimate profits based off of false advertising, noting that she did not feel duped by other products.
"As a result of the false and misleading representations, the Product is sold at a premium price, approximately no less than $10.99 for eight 2.39 oz cups, excluding tax and sales, higher than similar products, represented in a non-misleading way, and higher than it would be sold for absent the misleading representations and omissions," Ramirez wrote in the suit.