Why Keebler Is Being Sued Over Its Fudge Mint Cookies
A class action lawsuit proposed against Keebler in January 2021 has reached the point of becoming newsworthy. As Top Class Actions explains, the complaint accuses Ferrara, the company which owns Keebler, of lying to consumers with the insistence that their cookies were made with "real Keebler fudge." Fudge, the complaint maintains, is made from milks, butter, and sugar, none of which properly appear in the recipe list. Since then, Class Action reports that the complaint has expanded to include that "the appreciable amount of real mint" was also lacking. Instead, the company made recourse to artificial flavors.
Fox News also shared Keebler's ingredient list during their coverage of the lawsuit, which did not inspire hopes of fudge — enriched flour, sugar, and vegetable oil make up the bulk of the cookie. Following that, you have high fructose corn syrup, cocoa processed with alkali, and whey. In negligible quantities of less than 2%, you might also barely detect leavening agents, salt, sorbitan tristearate, soy lecithin, molasses, and the ever unhelpful description of natural and artificial flavors.
No fudge given in the list of ingredients
However, the very obviousness of those missing ingredients is why the lawsuit will probably not advance. In a comparable case where the plaintiff accused Hostess of not including carrots in their carrot cake donuts, the judge decided to dismiss the case because the plaintiff could easily have read the listed ingredients before purchasing the food, thereby avoiding any "harm." The U.S. typically upholds the right to fluff one's products beyond proportion as long as a list discrediting the advertisement is included in the back.
Robert Patillo went so far on Fox News as to point out that elves do not, in fact, construct the cookies in an artisanal manner. We know the "real fudge" is advertising, and so not a real lie. Social media responses on Reddit followed a similar train of thought. Namely, that if you really cared about fudge, you would forget about Keebler and get fudge.