Story Archive

You Butter Not Lie

Jan Polanik filed a class action lawsuit, bound and determined to vindicate all those trusting customers whom Dunkin’ Donuts has defrauded of their butter. “It’s a minor thing,” conceded his attorney, Thomas Shapiro, “but at the same time, if somebody goes in and makes a point to order butter for the bagel … they don’t want margarine or some other kind of chemical substitute.” The company’s policy is, or at least was before the lawsuit, to spread fake butter because “For food safety reasons, we do not allow butter to be stored at room temperature,” the company says. An attorney for some of the Dunkin’ franchisees involved said they’d settled the case and changed their ways — but he wouldn’t say how. (AC/Boston Globe) ...They didn’t, but the settlement was as real as their butter, so the suit is still in progress.