Second Lawsuit Accuses Little Caesars Of Selling Thousands Of Fake Halal Pizzas To Muslims

DEARBORN (WWJ) -- A second lawsuit has been filed against Detroit-based pizza giant Little Caesars, accusing a store in Dearborn of selling mislabeled, non-halal pizzas to Muslims.

One plaintiff, Michelle Meade, claims she and her husband ordered a pizza with halal pepperoni from the location on Schaefer Rd., but were wrongly given a pizza with pork pepperoni.

Halal is the Muslim equivalent of Judaism's kosher, and requires that meat be prepared according to Islamic guidelines, such as reciting a prayer while the animal is killed. Halal pepperoni is typically made with beef.

"[The] Plaintiffs and class members have relied on the representation that the meat that Defendants sold was in-fact Halal, and Plaintiffs and other class members have never had to second guess, what they were buying, and what they were receiving was in fact Halal," the lawsuit reads.

Meade said she was waiting for her husband, Mohamad Bazzi, to bring home a large pizza with halal pepperoni that he had ordered from the Dearborn location on March 30.

The pizza box Bazzi received was allegedly labeled "Large Custom Pizza Halal."

The two claim that they became sick when they realized they were eating the pork pepperoni, which is forbidden in Islam.

"[The] plaintiff could not believe that she was defrauded and wondered how many other Muslims may have unknowingly eaten Pork that defendants sold as Halal," the lawsuit reads.

The class action lawsuit is seeking $100 million in damages, with the number of "injured class members believed to be in the thousands."

On March 23, Meade and Bazzi, went to the Dearborn Police Department and filed a complaint as it is a crime under local and state law to defraud consumers and mislabel meat as halal when in reality it wasn't, according to the lawsuit.

A second plaintiff, Ali Bazzi, said he has been ordering from the same Dearborn location for years and would sometimes be charged different prices after ordering a halal pizza, from $5.30 to $7.

"There were times the pepperoni would be shrunk and crispy and looked like a bowl on top of the pizza," Ali Bazzi said in the lawsuit. "At other times, the pepperoni would be flat, soggy, and thicker than usually and it had a fatty taste."

Ali Bazzi said the pork pepperoni was the "flat and soggy" one with a "fatty taste."

You can read the entire lawsuit HERE.

In a statement released on Friday, attorney representing Little Caesars, J. Michael Huget, called the accusations "frivolous."