Subway has rubbished claims about tuna sandwiches, branding the alarming lab test results as “baseless” and “misleading”. Subway has hit back at claims that its tuna sandwiches did not contain real tuna, labeling them “baseless”. The New York Times report made startling claims after commissioning a lab test that reportedly failed to identify real fish in the popular sandwich chain’s tuna subs. Over 60 inches of tuna subs were tested in the investigation, with sandwiches purchased from three different stores in Los Angeles, which were then frozen and sent to a fish-testing lab for analysis. The lab results concluded, “No amplifiable tuna DNA was present in the sample, so we obtained no amplification products from the DNA. Therefore, we cannot identify the species.”
A spokesman for the lab said the results pointed to two conclusions. “One, it’s so heavily processed that whatever we could pull out, we couldn’t make an identification. Or we got some, and there’s just nothing there that’s tuna,” the spokesman said. However, Subway Australia has spoken out against the claims. “Subway restaurants serve 100 percent wild-caught cooked tuna, which is mixed with mayonnaise and used in freshly made sandwiches, wraps, and salads,” a spokesperson said. “Claims to the contrary are baseless and misleading.” The Times article indicated that DNA testing was not a reliable way to identify denatured proteins, like Subway’s tuna, which was cooked before it was tested.
The claims follow the filing of a lawsuit by two customers in California, who accused the chain of fraud and false advertising over the contents of its tuna sandwiches. The plaintiffs allege Subway had deliberately misled its customers by selling products “falsely advertised as tuna” to charge a “premium price”. The products “entirely lack any trace of tuna as a component, let alone the main or predominant ingredient”, the plaintiffs have claimed. However, the plaintiffs have not disclosed what they believed the sandwiches contained. Subway has more than 40,000 stores across the globe, with tuna being one of the chain’s best-selling sandwiches in the US. A Subway employee from the US told the Times she did not see what incentive Subway would have to replace the tuna with a substitute. “I dealt with the tuna all the time,” she said. “The ingredients are right on the package, and tuna is a relatively cheap meat. There would be no point in making replacement tuna to make it cheaper.”
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