Florida woman sues Kraft Heinz for $5M claiming mac and cheese takes longer to prepare than packaging indicates

A Florida woman filed a $5 million class-action lawsuit against Kraft Heinz at a Miami Federal court claiming that the company’s mac and cheese instant cups take longer to prepare than announced. 

Amanda Ramirez claims the microwavable Velveeta Shells & Cheese packaging “falsely” claims that the mac and cheese are “ready in 3 ½ minutes” because it always takes longer to prepare than the time it says. 

Ramirez, a self-described shopper who seeks to “stretch (her) money as far as possible when buying groceries” bought the product between October and November at a Hialeah Publix for a “premium price, approximately no less than $10.99,” according to court documents.

She had expected the product to be ready to eat after three and a half minutes from “the moment it is unopened to the moment it is ready for consumption” based on the labeling. 

However, Ramirez said there is the additional preparation time required to prepare the mac and cheese, including removing the lid, heating the water, stirring, and so on. She added that the “3 1/2-minute ready time is “just the length of time to complete one of several steps” required to consume the product. 

With her experience, she claims the packaging should say the product takes “3 1/2 minutes to cook in the microwave.”

The lawsuit looks to cover consumers in several states including, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, New Mexico, Alaska, Iowa, Tennessee, and Virginia who bought the product. 

Kraft Heinz Company told Fox Business that it was “aware of this frivolous lawsuit and will strongly defend against the allegations in the complaint.”