{"id":900953,"date":"2026-10-31T10:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T10:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/900953\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T10:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T10:34:12","slug":"mcdonalds-mcrib-lawsuit-moves-forward-after-federal-judges-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/900953\/","title":{"rendered":"McDonald&#8217;s McRib lawsuit moves forward after federal judge&#8217;s ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A &#8216;Barron&#8217;s Roundtable&#8217; panel discusses how the fast-food chain will manage the pinch on consumers&#8217; wallets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A federal judge ruled Friday that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/category\/mcdonalds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">McDonald&#8217;s<\/a> must face a proposed class action lawsuit accusing the fast-food giant of misleading customers about the meat used in its popular McRib sandwich.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. District Judge April Perry in Chicago rejected the company&#8217;s bid to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety, allowing consumer deception, fraud and unjust enrichment claims to proceed while dismissing five other claims without prejudice.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit, filed by four consumers in December, alleges that McDonald&#8217;s designed the McRib patty to resemble a rack of pork ribs despite containing no actual rib meat.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiffs argue that the sandwich&#8217;s name, appearance and marketing mislead customers into believing they are purchasing a more expensive cut of pork.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/lifestyle\/mcdonalds-hit-lawsuit-claiming-mcrib-contains-no-real-rib-meat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">MCDONALD&#8217;S HIT WITH LAWSUIT CLAIMING MCRIB CONTAINS NO REAL RIB MEAT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mcrib-sandwich.jpg\" alt=\"A McRib is seen at a McDonald's restaurant.\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>McDonald&#8217;s must face a proposed class action lawsuit accusing the fast-food giant of misleading customers about the meat used in its popular McRib sandwich. (David Paul Morris\/Getty Images, File \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Perry determined that it was too early to conclude that consumers could not reasonably expect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/category\/food-drinks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the sandwich<\/a> to contain rib meat, citing allegations about its marketing and consumer surveys submitted by the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n<p>One survey found that 72% of respondents expected the McRib to contain rib meat, while another found that 67% considered rib meat important or very important to their purchasing decision, according to the court filing.<\/p>\n<p>The ruling allows portions of the case to proceed but does not establish that McDonald&#8217;s engaged in deceptive advertising.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/markets\/nelson-peltz-led-group-offers-buy-wendys-1-4b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">NELSON PELTZ-LED GROUP OFFERS TO BUY WENDY\u2019S FOR $1.4B<\/a><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2016-10-05T104020Z_1_LYNXNPEC940JY_3_MCDONALDS-SINGAPORE-2.jpg\" alt=\"mcdonald's restaurant\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>There are nearly 45,000 McDonald&#8217;s restaurants worldwide. (Edgar Su\/Reuters, File \/ Reuters Photos)<\/p>\n<p>As FOX Business <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/lifestyle\/mcdonalds-hit-lawsuit-claiming-mcrib-contains-no-real-rib-meat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">previously reported<\/a>, the lawsuit alleges that the McRib contains lower-grade pork products, including pork shoulder, heart, tripe and stomach, rather than rib meat.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald&#8217;s has denied the allegations, maintaining that the sandwich contains 100% pork sourced from U.S. farmers and suppliers. The company previously told FOX Business that it does not use heart, tripe or scalded stomach in the McRib patty.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald&#8217;s argued that the sandwich&#8217;s name does not mislead reasonable consumers and that its publicly available ingredient list identifies pork as the primary ingredient.<\/p>\n<p>Ticker Security Last Change Change % MCD NO DATA AVAILABLE &#8211; &#8211;<br \/>\n        &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Perry rejected the argument that the McRib&#8217;s trademarked name shields the company from deceptive marketing claims, noting that other McDonald&#8217;s products, including the McChicken and Egg McMuffin, have names that describe their ingredients.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/apps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A representative for McDonald&#8217;s did not immediately respond to FOX Business&#8217; request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Introduced in 1981, the McRib has developed a loyal following through its periodic limited-time returns to McDonald&#8217;s menus. The sandwich features a boneless pork patty covered in barbecue sauce and topped with onions and pickles.<\/p>\n<p>There are nearly 14,000 McDonald&#8217;s restaurants in the U.S. and more than 45,000 worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A &#8216;Barron&#8217;s Roundtable&#8217; panel discusses how the fast-food chain will manage the pinch on consumers&#8217; wallets.\u00a0 A federal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-900953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}