A New York woman is taking legal action against Cold Stone Creamery for alleged deceptive advertising because she thought its ice cream contained pistachios.
The Farmingdale woman, identified as Jenna Marie Duncan, filed a class action lawsuit against Cold Stone Creamery after she bought pistachio ice cream from one of the company’s locations in Levittown in 2022, USA Today reported Monday.
Duncan apparently believed the ice cream contained pistachios, but, when she looked on the company’s website, she realized there were no pistachios in the treat.
Per the lawsuit, the food contains “pistachio flavoring made of water, ethanol, propylene glycol, natural and artificial flavor, Yellow 5 and Blue 1.”
The Today article continued:
The lawsuit claims that had Duncan known the product did not contain pistachios, she “would not have purchased it, or would have paid significantly less for it.”
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The defendant in the case is Kahala Franchising LLC, a company that owns franchises of chains such as Cold Stone Creamery, Wetzel’s Pretzels, Baja Fresh and Blimpie, among others.
According to Cold Stone’s website, its ice cream is made fresh in its stores daily with the finest ingredients.
A federal judge in the state has permitted the lawsuit to move forward, the Today article said.
Queen City News Chief Legal Analyst Khalif J. Rhodes Esq. pointed to the fact that pistachios are expensive, then said he reviewed the judge’s order and laughed:
“You got a Van Halen quote in there; you got a Weird Al Yankovich quote. I mean, the judge had a very good sense of humor. Even though he allowed her claim to proceed, he dismissed a couple of her other complaints,” Rhodes said.
“Because it wasn’t just pistachios. She basically listed all of them, coconuts, anything that they said had that actual item in there she found out that none of them had it; it was all mostly flavoring,” he added.
If Duncan wins the lawsuit, she could walk away with $50, per Fox 5.
