Texas Pete hot sauce was recently hit with a class-action lawsuit because the brand is not made in Texas. It seems like they are not the only food company who has been hit with that type of lawsuit: Barilla Pasta, which is not actually made in Italy, has been sued for claiming that it is “Italy’s No. 1 brand of pasta.”
USA Today reported that Matthew Sinatro and Jessica Prost filed a complaint after they bought boxes of spaghetti and angel hair pasta from Barilla under the impression that it was Italian or that the ingredients were from Italy. The complaint accuses Barilla of using deceptive marketing tactics.
According to CNN, Barilla’s slogan, “Italy’s No. 1 brand of pasta,” as well as its use of the colors of the Italian flag, were misrepresenting the origins of the pasta company. The company’s pasta is made in Iowa and New York, not Italy.
CNN reported that, according to Barilla’s website, “The pasta is made in Iowa and New York, using the same machines used its plant in Parma, Italy. Barilla was founded in 1877 in the small Italian town and has grown as an ‘international group present in more than 100 countries.’”
A judge ruled earlier this week that Sinatro and Prost had suffered economic injury and presented enough evidence to suggest that they wouldn’t have purchased the product had they known it wasn’t from Italy.
Barilla has not made a statement about this lawsuit.