Earlier this year, the restaurant chain Chipotle announced to much fanfare that it was halting the use of GMOs in the food it serves. That announcement has since been amplified by advertisements and displays in its restaurants. At least one California resident, however, thinks the chain is not living up to its promises and is suing Chipotle under the state's Consumer Legal Remedies Act and seeking class action status for the suit.

Further Reading Chipotle becomes the first major US restaurant chain to ditch GMOs

The suit carefully avoids discussing whether eating GMO foods has any consequences for the plaintiff, thus neatly dodging the need to contain any scientific content. But it does contain some questionable logic: some of the chain's meat and dairy products come from animals that were fed GMO food, and therefore allegedly contain GMOs as well.

The suit has been filed in the United States District Court of the Northern District of California on behalf of Colleen Gallagher and the class of Chipotle customer she's a part of. Said customers have allegedly seen the anti-GMO advertising and "been deceived into buying Chipotle’s food, or paying more for Chipotle products than they would have otherwise paid."

It doesn't allege any actual damages from the food itself, which is probably a good thing, since there is no scientific evidence that there is any. In fact, the suit attempts to dodge the science entirely, simply saying that controversy has created a bad reputation: "The potential health impact of GMOs has been the subject of much scrutiny and debate within the food and science industries, but Chipotle knows customers attach an unhealthy, negative perception towards them."

In fact, it cites a Pew Research Poll showing that only 37 percent of the public think GMOs are safe to consume. (It doesn't mention that the same poll found that an overwhelming majority of scientists think they're safe.)

But the suit does tackle the science a bit when it gets to the background section. Here, it mostly does a good job, noting "this technique allows new traits to be introduced one at a time without unwanted complications from extra genes and extensive crossbreeding." It correctly notes that GMOs are used to create pharmaceuticals and are so thoroughly integrated into the food system that over 90 percent of the US' corn and soybeans are modified.

Then it sort of runs off the rails. Because so much of the agriculture is GMO, much of the animal feed includes these crops. Therefore, the suit reasons, "most meat and dairy products contain GMOs due to the feed consumed by livestock and poultry." By the same logic, a typical consumer contains wheat and cows.

Chipotle actually discloses this information on its website, along with the fact that some of its drinks contain corn syrup made from GMO crops. But that's not good enough, according to the suit. Because of its heavy advertising campaign claiming it was GMO-free, the plaintiff took these claims at face value and took her business there.

The suit alleges that the same is almost certainly true of other consumers, and therefore a class action is warranted: "Absent a class action, Chipotle will retain substantial funds received as a result of its wrongdoing, and such unlawful and improper conduct shall, in large measure, not go remedied."

In addition to seeking class status, the lawyers are asking for trial by jury.