Rick Diamond/Getty Photographs for Buffalo Wild Wings
Rick Diamond/Getty Photographs for Buffalo Wild Wings
Can a boneless rooster wing be known as a wing?
That is the query posed by a brand new class-action lawsuit filed final week in federal court docket by a Chicago resident who purchased a batch of boneless wings from Buffalo Wild Wings in Mount Prospect, Illinois, in January.
Primarily based on the title and outline of the wings, the criticism states, Aymen Halim “fairly believed that the merchandise have been truly boneless wings,” in different phrases, that they consisted completely of rooster wing meat.
However the “boneless wings” served at Buffalo Wild Wings are usually not. As an alternative, they’re made with chicken from rooster breasts.
If Halim had identified about this, he “wouldn’t have purchased them or would have paid considerably much less for them,” he claims in his lawsuit. As well as, he claimed, the community “intentionally, falsely and knowingly misrepresented” its boneless wings as actual rooster wings.
The one response from the Buffalo Wild Wings got here within the type of a tweet.
That is true.
Our boneless wings are 100% white rooster.
Our hamburgers don’t include ham.
Our buffalo wings are 0% buffalo meat.— Wild Buffalo Wings (@BWWings) March 13, 2023
“That is true. All of our boneless wings are white rooster meat. Our hamburgers don’t include ham.
Breast meat is cheaper than bone-in rooster wings by greater than $3 a pound, in response to an Related Press report final month.
In truth, wings have been as soon as cheaper than breasts. Declare dates that change in the worth distinction again within the days of the Nice Recession, citing a 2009 New York Instances article concerning the enduring recognition of rooster wings, even as price-sensitive customers in the reduction of on consuming out.
Across the identical time, chick producers have been pursuing bigger hormone-filled birds, as famous in a 2018 article printed in Counter. Nonetheless, regardless of how a lot chicken an enormous rooster might give, it nonetheless solely had two wings.
Halim’s lawsuit seeks a court docket order to right away ban the Buffalo Wild Wings from making “deceptive statements” at 1,200 community areas throughout the nation.
A few of the bar’s rivals, together with Domino’s and Papa Johns, discuss with their rooster breast nuggets as “rooster poppers” or “boneless rooster,” the lawsuit says. “A restaurant known as Buffalo Wild ‘Wings’ needs to be simply as, if no more, cautious about the way it names its merchandise,” the submit reads.
The lawsuit additionally seeks unspecified financial damages suffered by Halim and all different prospects of Buffalo Wild Wings institutions in Illinois.
Lately, class motion lawsuits in opposition to meals and beverage firms have develop into extra frequent. Many individuals blame packaged meals, comparable to these bought in grocery shops, for misleading or deceptive labels, packaging, or promoting.
In line with Perkins Coie, a legislation agency that screens meals and beverage litigation and represents company pursuits, the variety of such instances has elevated from 18 in 2008 to greater than 300 in 2021. The numbers slowed final 12 months, the agency discovered.
