Hero Man Sues 23 Dunkin’ Donuts For Allegedly Lying About Butter

Sometimes a hero has to rise up and make a stand that will benefit all of us. Today, that hero is a man from Massachusetts named Jan Polanik. He’s suing Dunkin’ Donuts to get its sh*t together on their menu. Polanik wants Dunkin’ Donuts to clearly state when customers aren’t getting real butter on their baked goods.

Let’s break down the problem:

Polanik likes butter on his bagel. But, apparently, Dunkin’ Donuts smears margarine on its bagels from what appears to be a huge tub of obviously not butter. Here’s the issue: Polanik sees butter as an option on the menu, asks for butter, but gets a hydrogenated and emulsified vegetable oil substitute. Now, he’s tired of the treachery and deceit (to be fair to Dunkin, we can’t imagine this was malice on their part) and he’s willing to take his complaint to the highest court in the land (of Massachusetts, anyway) to seek recompense. See? Hero.

Polanik’s attorney made his intentions clear in a statement to the press, “the main thrust of the case, really, is to get the stores, and hopefully Dunkin’ Donuts generally, to change that practice and not deceive people.” The case will likely net Polanik $500 as an “incentive award” for filing the class action lawsuit. That suit will allow up to 1,400 Massachusettsians to claim four free baked goods with real butter and force 23 locations in the Mass area to serve only real butter for at least a year. Lastly, the suit also demands that if Dunkin’ Donuts uses a butter substitute in the future, they’ll have to explicitly say so on menus.

This does speak to a larger awakening — an awokening, if you will — of people realizing that a lot of food out there isn’t what it’s labeled as. For decades now food lobbies have corrupted the FDA to allow fake foods to pass as the real deal — from “kobe” to parmesan to wines to what restaurants can call “lobster.” So, let’s chalk this one up in the win column for transparency in our food, at the very least.

(Via The New York Times)