TGI Fridays Mozzarella Sticks Lawsuit: The 'No Mozzarella' Claim

The Claim

The lawsuit concerned a grocery snack — “TGI Fridays Mozzarella Sticks” sold in stores, not the restaurant menu item. A plaintiff alleged the snacks were misbranded because, despite the name and packaging, they contained cheddar cheese rather than mozzarella. It is a straightforward consumer-deception theory: the product is named for an ingredient it does not contain.

The snacks are made under license by a manufacturer, Inventure Foods, which is a key detail for who was actually on the hook.

The Settlement

A federal judge allowed the case to proceed against Inventure Foods — the maker — but not against TGI Fridays itself, since the restaurant chain licensed the brand rather than producing the snack. Inventure agreed to a $900,000 settlement covering US purchasers of the snack over a defined period (roughly 2017 to 2022), with modest per-person payments reported around a few dollars.

The licensor-versus-manufacturer distinction is common with branded grocery products, and it determined which company faced liability here.

What Shoppers Should Know

A brand name on a packaged food does not guarantee the named ingredient is inside — the ingredient list is the check. For the settlement, any claim window is verified through the court-approved administrator. These small-dollar food-label cases rarely pay much per person but do push labeling accuracy.