Krispy Kreme Is Being Sued For $5 Million Over Fake Blueberry Doughnuts

Doughnuts, however tasty, are not a wholesome or nutritious food. While that’s certainly obvious to any reasonable adult, it was apparently news to a California man named Jason Saidian, who has filed a $5 million class action lawsuit against Krispy Kreme.

Saidian is accusing Krispy Kreme of false advertising and fraud for misrepresenting its doughnuts — namely, the fact that its “Glazed Blueberry Cake” doughnut does not contain any actual blueberries, its “Glazed Raspberry Filled” doughnut contains no raspberries, and its maple bars don’t actually have any maple syrup in them.

While a simple glance at the doughnuts’ ingredient listings would reveal that the blueberry doughnuts, for instance, contain artificial “blueberry gumbits” made from corn syrup and artificial coloring rather than real blueberries, that information isn’t readily available: As the lawsuit explains, “The donuts sold in-store by [Krispy Kreme] are displayed in a tray behind a glass counter, along with a small placard in front of each tray that provides the name of the donut variety. No ingredients list is provided or available to customers in-store.”

The suit argues that the company is obviously perfectly capable of making doughnuts with real “premium ingredients” — noting that its lemon doughnut contains real lemon juice and its apple cinnamon doughnut contains both apples and cinnamon — and is purposely deceiving customers.

But here’s where the complaint gets a little ridiculous: The lawsuit explains that blueberries, for example, “have the potential to limit the development and severity of certain cancers and vascular diseases...and neurodegenerative diseases of aging.”

The implication here seems to be that Krispy Kreme is ripping customers off at least in part because they thought they were getting doughnuts loaded with cancer-fighting, antioxidant-loaded berries when in fact they were getting sugary artificial schlock; the suit argues that if consumers had been aware that the doughnuts didn’t actually contain so-called “premium ingredients,” they wouldn’t have purchased them.

Newsflash: No one buys doughnuts because they think they’re healthy; they buy them because they’re delicious, sugar and calorie content be damned.

Krispy Kreme does not comment on ongoing litigation.

Check out the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for Central California, below:

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