A lawsuit for 5 million dollars has been filed against popular doughnut chain, Krispy Kreme.
Jason Saidian, from California, is charging Krsipy Kreme for their misleading marketing. Some of their doughnuts have been named to lead consumers that they contain nutritious fruits, while they are actually entirely free of fruit.
Some of the doughnut names in question are: Chocolate Iced Raspberry Filled, Glazed Blueberry Cake, Glazed Raspberry Filled, and Glazed Blueberry Cake doughnut holes. Each of these doughnuts, according to the lawsuit, contain no blueberries or raspberries. Saidian also became informed that the popular Maple Iced Glazed and Maple Bar doughnuts are also misleading. These maple doughnuts offer no maple syrup in their ingredient list.
On the other hand the chain’s lemon doughnuts include real lemon, the strawberry doughnuts are made with strawberries, and its cinnamon apple doughnuts have real apples inside. These premium doughnuts all have some healthy ingredients, while the blueberry and raspberry do not.
The lawsuit is not questioning whether the doughnuts are healthy or not- but holding the chain accountable for its misleading names.
While a health conscious dessert eater may not immediately grab at donuts, one may feel better to know that real ingredients are being used instead of over-processed imitation ingredients. For example, the blueberry doughnut products include imitation blueberries made from blue dye #1, blue dye #2, and corn syrup. Their color and circular shape may cause some to believe that they are actual blueberries.
The suit claims that if consumers knew the doughnuts did not contain real ingredients due to its deceptive names, consumers would not have purchased or would have paid less for the items. Krispy Kreme’s marketing is being called deceptive practice due to this incident.