---
title: Why Subway’s tuna is headed to court
description: A new ruling suggests the sandwich chain’s tuna troubles will continue.
---

[Hustle News ](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news)

# [Why Subway’s tuna is headed to court](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/07132022-subway-subs)

 Written by [Rob Litterst](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/rob-litterst) | Jul 13, 2022 5:50:37 AM

You may want to think twice before ordering that $5 footlong.

Subway, the global sandwich chain, is battling claims over the legitimacy of its tuna, and a federal judge [just ruled](https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/subway-can-be-sued-over-its-tuna-us-judge-rules-2022-07-11/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email%27) the company can be sued for misleading customers about its ingredients, per *Reuters*.

#### **Subway’s tuna trouble…**

… started when a disgruntled customer enlisted a marine biologist to analyze 20 tuna samples from the chain. He found 19 of them had “no detectable tuna DNA sequences.”

The finding kicked off a series of events:

- Subway released a statement, created a dedicated website, and ran commercials touting that it “serves 100% tuna.”
- The sandwich chain argued that any presence of non-tuna DNA could be due to cross-contamination with other ingredients.
- A US district judge didn’t rule out Subway’s explanation, but determined that some ingredients in the samples (e.g., chicken, pork, beef) are not what a “reasonable consumer would… expect to find in a tuna product.”

For now, Subway is standing firm — recent menu updates don’t show any tuna-related changes despite the ongoing lawsuit.

#### **This isn’t Subway’s first run-in with sketchy food**

Previous investigations happened in:

- **2017,** when Canadian researchers found Subway’s chicken [only contained](https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.3993967) ~50% chicken DNA
- **2020,** when an Irish court ruled that Subway’s bread [isn’t actually bread](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/01/irish-court-rules-subway-bread-is-not-bread) due to its high sugar content

The company also faced a class-action suit for selling footlong sandwiches that were [shorter than a foot](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericgoldman/2016/02/29/why-the-subway-footlong-lawsuits-fell-short/?sh=33344c3a69f2), but it was ultimately dismissed.

#### **Subway’s not alone**

Class-action lawsuits against food and beverage companies have been [rising for years](https://thehustle.co/08312021-food-and-beverage-lawsuits/), and payouts can be lucrative.

That said, if your tuna isn’t tuna, your chicken isn’t chicken, and your bread isn’t really bread — there’s gotta be a better way.

**For more on Subway,** check out our deep dive on [the rise and fall of the $5 footlong](https://thehustle.co/the-rise-and-demise-of-subways-5-footlong-promotion/).

[View full post](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/07132022-subway-subs)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Rob Litterst"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2023-10-11T19:58:15.225Z",
  "datePublished" : "2022-07-13T05:50:37Z",
  "headline" : "Why Subway’s tuna is headed to court",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 1707,
    "url" : "https://7355427.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7355427/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/166120250-HS-News-Brief_2022-07-12T224750.854Z-scaled.webp",
    "width" : 2560
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/07132022-subway-subs",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "Hustle News"
  }
}
```