Fox Business reports that U.S. District Judge April Perry in Chicago on Friday rejected McDonald's bid to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety, allowing consumer deception, fraud and unjust enrichment claims to proceed while dismissing five other claims without prejudice.

It alleges the McRib patty was deliberately designed to resemble a rack of pork ribs despite containing no actual rib meat, and that the sandwich's name, appearance and marketing lead customers to believe they are buying a more expensive cut of pork.

According to Fox Business, the plaintiffs claim the patty contains lower-grade pork products including pork shoulder, heart, tripe and stomach rather than rib meat — allegations McDonald's denies, maintaining the sandwich contains 100% pork sourced from U.S. farmers and suppliers and does not use heart, tripe or scalded stomach.

McDonald's had argued that the sandwich's name could not mislead a reasonable consumer and that its publicly available ingredient list identifies pork as the primary ingredient. Fox Business reports that Judge Perry rejected both arguments.

She refused to conclude that it is too early — or rather too late — for consumers to be surprised, finding it too early to say no reasonable customer could expect rib meat, and she rejected the notion that the trademarked McRib name shields the company from deceptive marketing claims.

Perry reportedly noted that other McDonald's products, such as the McChicken and Egg McMuffin, have names that describe their ingredients, undercutting the idea that McRib is understood as pure branding.

The ruling does not establish that McDonald's engaged in deceptive advertising, but it keeps the case alive.

The plaintiffs' consumer surveys played a key role in Perry's reasoning.

Fox Business reports, citing the court filing, that one survey found 72% of respondents expected the McRib to contain rib meat, while another found that 67% considered rib meat important or very important to their purchasing decision.

Those figures gave the judge a factual basis for finding that consumers' expectations about the sandwich are genuinely disputed.

McDonald's has denied the allegations and previously told Fox Business it does not use heart, tripe or scalded stomach in the patty; a company representative did not immediately respond to Fox Business's request for comment on the ruling.

The McRib, introduced in 1981, has built a devoted following through periodic limited-time returns, and Fox Business notes the case now moves forward with nearly 14,000 U.S. McDonald's locations and more than 45,000 worldwide in the background.

Asbury Park Press examined the underlying question for a general audience — why there is a McRib lawsuit at all and what is actually in the sandwich — signaling wide public curiosity about the patty's composition.