Subway tuna lawsuit claims chicken, pork DNA were found in samples

A third version of the lawsuit was filed against Subway over its tuna products that chicken, pork and cattle DNA was found in samples, alleging that the sandwich chain “duped” customers, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The Monday lawsuit filed by Karen Dhanowa and Nilima Amin claims that a marine biologist had tested 20 samples of tuna products taken from over a dozen southern California Subway locations, and that the results found that 19 of the 20 had “no detectable tuna DNA sequences,” according to the news outlet.

According to court documents, all 20 samples contained chicken DNA, 11 products had pork DNA and seven contained the DNA of cattle. 

A Subway spokesperson dismissed the lawsuit, saying in a statement that “the plaintiffs have filed three meritless complaints, changing their story each time.”

“This third, most recent amended claim, was filed only after their prior complaint was rightfully dismissed by a federal judge. Our legal team is in the process of evaluating the plaintiffs’ amended claim, and will once again file a new motion to dismiss this reckless and improper lawsuit,” the spokesperson said. “The fact remains that Subway tuna is real and strictly regulated by the FDA in the U.S., and other government entities around the world.”

Subway is no stranger, however, to controversies over its tuna. 

In June, The New York Times reported that after buying 60 inches of Subway tuna sandwiches from three different restaurants, it could not find any identifiable tuna DNA. 

Subway said in a statement to The Hill at the time that “DNA testing is simply not a reliable way to identify denatured proteins, like Subway’s tuna, which was cooked before it was tested.”

The chain later set up a website to combat against such allegations, including a “Tuna fact check.”

The Hill has reached out to the plaintiffs’ lawyers for comment.