Posted on 05/26/2018 8:04:13 PM PDT by EdnaMode
Two South Florida McDonald's customers think the fast-food giant is being awfully cheesy with how it charges customers for a signature item that has been on its menu since 1975.
According to a class-action lawsuit filed in Fort Lauderdale federal court on May 8, Cynthia Kissner, of Broward County, and Leonard Werner, of Miami-Dade, say they have had to pay for cheese they don't want on their Quarter Pounder sandwiches.
The suit asks for at least $5 million.
It comes down to this: On the menu, a hamburger at Micky D's is cheaper than a cheeseburger.
According to the lawsuit, filed by Andrew Lavin of the Miami-based Lavin Law Group, McDonald's used to sell four items in the Quarter Pounder family, with and without cheese, with prices adjusted accordingly — about .30 to .90 cents more for cheese than without.
This practice continued for years, the suit says, but now McDonald's, "at some point," ceased "separately displaying these products for purchase on menus, and currently lists the availability of Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese."
As a result, the suit claims, "customers have been forced, and continue to be overcharged for these products, by being forced to pay for two slices of cheese, which they do not want, order, or receive, to be able to purchase their desired product."
Having to pay for cheese they do not receive because they asked that it be held off of the burgers, well, they are not "lovin' it," to borrow from McDonald's current slogan.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Plus they have been noticeing Starbucks as well since they added their McCafe menu a while back now and dropped the kiddie mascots. In Canada surprisingly they are now the number 1 seller of coffee surpassing Tim Hortons.
If you cook you’re own burgers at home, you make them how every you want. Will cost you less too.
Just saying.
Question is though ;if it is the same price with cheese as without, why would you raise the price for extra cheese if the cheese is free?
“This is why we need legal reform. These idiots should be sued into oblivion”
This is why we need to start hanging lawyers.
I remember a hamburger, fries and a drink and get change back from your dollar.
No one has been forced to do anything.
Would it not be perfectly legal if McD charged $5 to take the cheese off?
Insane. Too many lawyers. They must have "lowered the bar."
For decades I have believed we are living in an insane asylum...Bizarro World.
Shakespeare had it right when he said "first thing we do, kill all the lawyers."
exactly. I modify my food orders all the time, but pay full price anyhow.
This is not the “have it your way” hamburger joint.
I come from a Caribbean island but I married a corn fed gal from northwest Iowa. If I may take a moment of your time, I would offer a defense of Velveeta.
Cheese results from acidifying milk which causes the proteins to clump together trapping fat in a net like weave. When heated, the fat renders out and you get oily goo dripping out. (Why some pizza and burgers made with "real" cheese can be greasy.) The fat in cheese also makes it less shelf stable for storage or shipping.
By adding Sodium Citrate to "real" cheese you can displace some of the Calcium which exists in milk and it makes the protein net more flexible. (Now it may be Sodium Phosphate which is just another type of salt and other milk proteins like whey but not, "plastic".) Heating this looser net allows it to melt more easily.
"Sodium citrate comes in and replaces the calcium ions with sodium ions, which are less positively charged (sodium: +1; calcium: +2). They thus make the caseins more negative. That means they’re less hydrophobic and more soluble, with the result that caseins now bind each other much more weakly than they did in cheese. They rearrange themselves into a looser, springier net, forming a substance that’s halfway between cheese and milk: the proteins are insoluble enough that their net can still trap fat molecules, yet soluble enough that the net is flexible and can withstand the heat rising up from a hamburger patty. Food scientists at Kraft describe it as partially reversing the process of making cheese." http://discovermagazine.com/2011/sep/16-the-secret-of-velveeta-how-cheese-food-is-made
Americans eat more, "cheese food" that real cheese and it stores longer and ships to market more easily. Copy and paste the link above and don't hate Velveeta. My Iowa girl likes her queso dip.
Yup, definitely! ;p
I agree with them. But ... a multi million dollar lawsuit??!!! Yeah, not worth it.
I don’t eat at McDonalds anymore anyway. Haven’t in years. But the last time I did, it was probably a quarter pounder without cheese.
We need loser pays tort system.
In my mind, you are correct.
Fast food restaurants are food manufacturing companies. They have a set list of items they manufacture, e.g., Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Any deviation from that standard product is a custom order. Custom orders cost the manufacturer time and money when the process is deviated. In addition, McDonald's cash registers are item buttons and not regular cash registers.
The people ordered an item on the menu, got the item on the menu and they are still unhappy. If I ordered a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and expected Swiss Cheese, I would be the person with unrealistic expectations. They are similarly wrong in their expectations.
Certainly there has to be MUCH BETTER places to eat than some over rated McDonald’s. I would be more than surprised if a judge doesn’t toss this one out.
Well, there’s processed cheese like Velveeta which is real cheese modified with sodium citrate as you point out. By law it can still be called cheese on the packaging. But there’s a lower level of cheese that’s not really cheese (or has a lower percentage of real cheese). It can’t be called cheese but instead is called “cheese food” or “cheese product”. The question is, is McDonalds using processed cheese or something more questionable in its cheesiness.
BTW, sodium citrate is readily available and can be used at home to make Velveeta style cheese from regular cheddar or whatever. It’s sort of the best of both worlds...you get the uniform meltiness of processed cheese but with the flavor and simple ingredient list of normal cheese. Perfect for making queso or melty nacho cheese:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/06/nacho-cheese-sodium-citrate_n_6108794.html
Apparently you can also use gelatin (and lots of interesting processed cheese info at this link):
Velvets has its uses and some may indeed include mixing it with food. But I doubt mcD uses Velveeta. Just a guess whatever they use comes from a plastics factory
The cheese is listed as “pasteurized process American cheese” on the McDonalds website:
https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/cheeseburger.html
So apparently it meets the FDA threshold for being considered actual cheese rather than cheese food or cheese product.
Here are the listed ingredients: Milk, Cream, Water, Sodium Citrate, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Color Added, Sorbic Acid (Preservative), Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Acetic Acid, Enzymes, Soy Lecithin.
I do wonder what “milk” means here, though. Is it milk milk or is it milk protein solids, the latter being more of a hallmark of less than natural cheesoids.
And even if they did price it separately, does that bind McDonald's to sell it that way forever?
-PJ
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