Counting Calories: Judge Rules All Subway Footlong Sandwiches Must Be 12 Inches Long To Ensure Accuracy
In the past few years, the fast-food chain Subway has had a slew of bad publicity. Last year, long-time spokesman Jared Fogle got 15 years in prison for underage sex. In 2014, a former employee published a video accusing the company of deceptive marketing, and 2013 saw a study saying the sub shop was as unhealthy as McDonald’s. That same year, an Australian teenager posted a picture on Facebook showing that the famed “footlong” sandwiches were actually shorter than 12 inches, which led to a class-action lawsuit against the company. This past February, a judge finally came down with the verdict in that case: Subway must ensure that all of its footlongs live up to the name.
According to the Associated Press, a judge had given preliminary approval in October 2015 to a settlement between Doctor’s Associates, Subway’s parent company, and the plaintiff’s attorneys. In it, Subway agreed to make sure their sandwiches were at least 12 inches long for the next four years. The settlement also awarded $520,000 in attorney fees and $500 to each of the 10 people represented in the case.
The other members of the class action won’t receive payment as it’s “difficult to prove monetary damages, because everybody ate the evidence," Thomas Zimmerman, who was co-lead attorney for the class, told the Associated Press.
After the plaintiff’s attorneys realized their claims were relatively weak, they decided instead to focus on getting a court order to ensure all future Subway footlong sandwiches would be at least 12 inches.
When calorie counters order a footlong sandwich, they rely on the signs and nutritional information posted at Subway restaurants and online to stay on track. If that footlong differs in any way, dieters may be eating more or fewer calories, which affects their daily numbers.
The settlement is great news for those who felt Subway shortchanged them with their marketing campaigns of five-dollar footlongs. However, the suit also brought some interesting tidbits to light about how Subway actually makes its sandwiches. The attorneys found the sub shop uses frozen “dough sticks” that are thawed, then stretched before baking. This stretching can lead to various sizes and shapes of bread.
Subway is able to keep calorie counters in the loop because it has standardized the amount of meat and cheese put onto a sandwich at each location, meaning you should know how many calories your sandwich contains when you buy it. But as Lynn Adelman, the judge presiding over the case, wrote in her final approval, a shorter bread length could mean fewer toppings, which can screw up a calorie count. Subway fixes this by making the sandwich directly in front of the customer, who can ask for more toppings, meaning “the length of the bread does not affect the quantity of food the customer receives," Adelman wrote.
However, if you’re counting calories how do you know how many extra calories are added with each handful of spinach or squirt of mayonnaise added to your dish? A footlong Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich is 740 calories and nine grams of fat without toppings. Adding Subway’s Fat-Free Sweet Onion dressing adds 40 calories from a 21 gram serving size, but anyone who’s ever gone to a Subway restaurant knows the workers aren’t exactly measuring it out. Now that Subway’s standardized their meats, cheeses, and breads, they should focus on their toppings so they can reclaim their “healthy” title.