Less “tuna,” more “rough approximation of tuna.”
Sub sandwich chain Subway has been garnering quite a few sideways looks lately. Back in September, a lawsuit over in Ireland determined that their sandwich bread had too much sugar in it to actually be considered “bread,” falling more in line with the likes of cake. That’s pretty worrying, but at least they can’t fake any of their sandwich ingredients, right? Right?
A lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has alleged that the tuna salad used by Subway in both sandwiches and wraps does not, in fact, contain any actual tuna fish. According to the formal complaint, Subway’s tuna is actually a “mixture of various concoctions that do not constitute tuna, yet have been blended together by defendants to imitate the appearance of tuna.”
The lawsuit was filed by two California residents, Karen Dhanowa and Nilima Amin, who claim that they “were tricked into buying food items that wholly lacked the ingredients they reasonably thought they were purchasing.”
“Consumers are consistently misled into purchasing the products for the commonly known and/or advertised benefits and characteristics of tuna when in fact no such benefits could be had, given that the products are in fact devoid of tuna,” their lawsuit claims.
Subway is facing yet another lawsuit over its ingredients, one alleging that the tuna salad used in its sandwiches and wraps doesn't contain any actual tuna. https://t.co/tUxcAe8aRo
— Food & Wine (@foodandwine) January 28, 2021
Subway has yet to publicly comment on the matter. According to the menu on their website, Subway’s tuna salad is made with flaked tuna in brine, mayonnaise and a flavor-preserving additive. Dhanowa and Amin’s attorney, Alex Brown, has submitted samples of Subway tuna to a local lab to determine if the menu is factual. “We are conducting tests to figure out what it is. The lab tests thus far have only told us what it isn’t,” Brown told CBS.
If it is determined that Subway’s tuna isn’t actually tuna, this little suit could potentially evolve into a massive class-action, representing the untold thousands of customers who bought a tuna sandwich or wrap from Subway at any point after January 21, 2017.