McDonald's fails to kill lawsuit claiming the McRib has no rib in it

The McRib is shaped like a rack of ribs. A group of McDonald's customers say that's where the ribs end, and a federal judge has just let them take McDonald's to court over it.

On Oct. 30, U.S. District Judge April Perry in Chicago rejected McDonald's bid to throw out the proposed class action entirely. Claims of consumer deception, fraud and unjust enrichment can go ahead. Five other claims were dismissed without prejudice, which means the plaintiffs can try them again.

The case, Le v. McDonald's Corp., was filed in December 2025 by four consumers.

What's really in it, according to the lawsuit

The complaint alleges the patty is made from "ground-up portions of lower-grade pork products", including pork shoulder, heart, tripe and scalded stomach, rather than rib meat.

It also accuses McDonald's of using the sandwich's famous disappearing act to sell it. "McDonald's has cultivated a sense of anticipation around the McRib," the complaint says, pointing to decades of limited-time comebacks.

The plaintiffs backed their case with surveys. In one, 72% of people said they expected the McRib to contain rib meat. In another, 67% said rib meat was important or very important to them when buying it, according to Fox Business.

McDonald's says it's all pork

McDonald's denies all of it. The company says the McRib is 100% pork from U.S. farmers and suppliers, and told Fox Business it does not use heart, tripe or scalded stomach in the patty.

"This lawsuit distorts the facts and the claims are meritless," McDonald's said, according to NBC News.

Its lawyers argued that the McRib name doesn't mislead any reasonable customer, that its public ingredient list names pork as the main ingredient, and that what goes into the patty has been reported for years. The judge didn't buy either argument at this stage. "Consumers are not required to consult publicly-available sources before making purchases," Perry wrote.

She also rejected the idea that a trademarked name gets a free pass, noting that other McDonald's names, like the McChicken and the Egg McMuffin, describe what's inside. It was "too early to conclude" that customers couldn't reasonably expect rib meat in a McRib, she ruled.

The shape alone won't win it for the plaintiffs, though. Perry said they would need more proof to show McDonald's meant to deceive anyone by making the patty look like ribs, according to E! News.

The ruling doesn't mean McDonald's did anything wrong. It only means the case is strong enough on paper to keep going, and no class has been certified yet.

The McRib first appeared in 1981: a boneless pork patty in barbecue sauce, topped with onions and pickles. McDonald's has nearly 14,000 restaurants in the U.S., and the sandwich has built a cult following by vanishing and coming back.