A Clinton food distributor has started a fight over having to pay for nearly 2 million pounds of frozen mozzarella cheese sticks.
Global Performance Group Inc. in Van Buren County has sued the seller of the appetizer, McCain Foods USA Inc. of Lisle, Illinois, and said it shouldn’t have to pay the $1.1 million bill for the finger food, according to GPG’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Little Rock.
McCain, in a counterclaim, said GPG is responsible for the bill.
The problems that caused the lawsuit date back to 2015, GPG said. McCain is a producer of potato products and appetizers that it sells through distributors and restaurants. In 2015, McCain was one of the companies that supplied mozzarella sticks to McDonald’s Corp.
In late 2015 or early 2016, McDonald’s abruptly stopped selling the menu item after complaints surfaced that the mozzarella sticks contained no cheese, according to GPG. Postings on social media showed batter shells with no mozzarella inside, and a lawsuit against McDonald’s followed, according to GPG’s complaint.
That left McCain holding tons of unsold cheese sticks wrapped in McDonald’s packaging. McCain then started selling the frozen items to other distributors and wholesalers.
GPG said in the lawsuit that McCain kept it in the dark about the complaints and didn’t mention that the sticks were “defective.”
GPG bought 1.7 million pounds of cheese sticks, which, if you were wondering, was 47 tractor-trailer truckloads.
It is suing for unspecified damages.
In court filings, McCain denied knowing that the cheese sticks were defective “in any way.” And GPG never told McCain that there was anything wrong with the food, according to McCain.
“Even though GPG accepted the Products and the Invoices all are past-due, GPG has not made a single payment for the Products,” McCain said in the filing.
McCain is suing GPG for breach of contract for not paying the bill.