In the middle of summer, there’s nothing more satiating than post-cicada nature, a good sandwich, and a little petty litigiousness. TunaGate 2021 started when a lawsuit out of California claimed that Subway tuna fish sandwiches do not actually contain tuna. It was scandalous, especially to loyal sandwich punch-card holders. Subway quickly denied allegations and even after labs backed them up, launched a vigorous anti-smear campaign to swim against the current flow of rumors. This includes a whole website the company dropped to fight against all this slander around their tuna.
As reported by The Washington Post in late January, self-described regular customers Karen Dhanowa (of course a Karen is behind this) and Nilima Amin claimed that Subway’s tuna is not actually tuna but “a mixture of various concoctions.” What those concoctions are, the lawsuit did not disclose. As of now, the lawsuit is still pending, but was amended in June to argue that the franchise chain isn’t selling, “100% sustainably caught skipjack and yellowfin tuna,” as they claimed on their website, but something else entirely. Subway, in numerous publications, has said that there’s no truth to the allegations and their tuna is indeed, tuna.
