Wisconsinite Sues Bagel Bites Over Imitation Mozzarella

Remember the lawsuit that alleged Subway's tuna was "made from anything but tuna"? Now, an Elroy, Wisconsin, woman is taking a similar approach: she's suing food giant Kraft Heinz, claiming that the company's Bagel Bites Pizza Snacks packaging amounts to fraud.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on the federal lawsuit, which was filed in Madison earlier this month. The suit takes issue with the claims on the Bagel Bites box, which advertise mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce and are, per the suit, "false, deceptive and misleading." The suit seeks class-action status on behalf of anyone who bought Bagel Bites in Wisconsin, asking for unspecified damages as well as updated Bagel Bites packaging. The company would be required to label the product's topping as "imitation mozzarella cheese," thanks to the presence of added food starch in place of real dairy. Earlier this year, lawyers for Heinz Kraft responded to a similar suit by arguing that because some mozzarella is used in the Bagel Bites "cheese blend," the blend is not technically "imitation" mozzarella.

Still, the plaintiff argues that the presence of potentially shady mozzarella disgraces Wisconsin consumers, known for their love of cheese. "Wisconsin consumers want real mozzarella cheese in pizza because they value (1) its soft, moist texture, (2) its milky, yet tangy taste and (3) its high protein and relatively low calories and sodium compared to other cheeses," the suit states.

Interestingly enough, the lawyer filing this suit also sued on behalf of another Wisconsin woman. That suit claimed the packaging of the defendant's vanilla ice cream was misleading because it relied on artificial vanilla flavoring, the Journal Sentinel reports. Fake cheese, real cheese—it's all delicious in the eyes of God.